closer
by sinking like stones
Summary: Ty Lee thinks she can tame monsters; Azula thinks she can avoid love. They both are wrong. [Vampire!Azula AU]
1. toys

**AN:** I got a lot of requests to expand on one of my oneshots from Tyzula Week, and so this story is based on the world/characters of that story. It's a pretty formulaic paranormal romance with some twists. This is technically my Tyzula Month fic, but the #TyzulaTuesday prompt worked so well as a prologue (and Tyzula Month starts tomorrow, so, well…). It probably will take longer than June to properly write, but I'm going to keep up as much as possible. Likely it will take most of the summer. Lastly, this will probably go up to M at some point.

Happy Tyzula Month, and I hope you enjoy the story!

* * *

 **closer**

* * *

 ** _prologue: toys_**

* * *

It is raining on Kyoshi Island, and two girls stand on the rocky beach.

They are soaked to the bone and their conversation has bitterly ended. Now they can only stare at each other and search for the right words.

Unsurprisingly, Azula finds them first.

"I promised I wouldn't hurt you. You are the only person I have ever cared about enough to…" Azula cannot continue.

"So, you're just going to leave me like this? The rain is such a nice touch; it's dramatic," Ty Lee snaps, her eyes glistening with tears instead of joy for the first time in a long time.

"Run off with him. I don't care." Azula shrugs and pretends not to care.

"But I love you. I love you!" Ty Lee screams, and she is certain the entire island can hear her.

"You are just a toy that I have lost interest in," Azula says. It is not true, but she has always been an excellent liar.

Azula begins to walk away and Ty Lee tries to think, tries to do something about it. She grabs the arm of a brutal monster—a monster who has killed people in front of Ty Lee's eyes—and tugs her back. Their lips collide and the warmth inside of her is stronger than the cold rain.

Ty Lee slides her hands to Azula's waist, regardless of the danger. She would die for this; she would die for their love. Azula remains uncertain about it, but she does not resist when Ty Lee pulls her closer until Ty Lee's back hits the mossy rocks behind them. She pulls Azula closer, and closer, and closer until their hips are so tightly against each other that they must be setting the rain on fire.

Azula stops herself the moment her hand snakes up Ty Lee's shirt.

She pulls away from her soaking girlfriend — _ex_ -girlfriend — and they both exchange a glance.

"You felt it," Azula says through bared teeth. "Is that evidence enough for you."

Ty Lee does feel… weak, but she thinks it has to be a broken heart, not a breaking body.

"I don't care," she says, because she does not know what else to say anymore.

Azula always wins.

"I do. Goodbye, my broken little doll." Azula turns and the cold rain masks hot tears.

She walks away, and this time, Ty Lee lets her disappear.

Ty Lee would follow her to the ends of the Earth, but she does not know if Azula would let her tag along.

Dolls are meant to be broken.

* * *

 ** _chapter one: fancy_**

* * *

Everybody knows everybody on Kyoshi Island. It is a small place that survives on fishing, farming and the mainland coal mines, and does not have much else.

So when the Kasai family moves there, the news spreads like wildfire to all two-thousand residents. The newbies are a mystery that everyone wants to solve, and Ty Lee lives as close to the Kasai family as the rural houses get, which means she has the ability to greet them first.

It excites her _so much_. She can barely contain it, hopping up and down in her kitchen.

"Can I go meet them?" Ty Lee pleads, her hands clasped together.

Her mother looks her up and down. "Yes. Bring them these; I just finished."

Mom pushes a box of cinnamon cookies into Ty Lee's hands. Ty Lee nods, rushes outside, finds her bike, shoves the cookies inside of the basket and snaps it shut, and rides over the coarse dirt road past the fields of crops.

She slides to a stop in front of the old but beautiful house and hops off of her bike. A super-hot teenage boy sits outside on the front steps and Ty Lee frantically waves at him.

He is dressed so _nicely_ , and he is so well groomed. He looks like a _prince_ , or something.

"Hi!" she calls out, walking to the front of the fence.

"Hi…?" He stands and walks towards her, looking puzzled.

Ty Lee smiles and loudly explains, "I'm Ty Lee. I'm your next door neighbor."

The boy looks over his shoulder at the empty land to his right. It would be lucky if a tumbleweed passed by. "I wouldn't call that next door."

"Well, unless you live in town or by the beach, this is kind of how it is on Kyoshi," Ty Lee kindly says.

"Right. Oh, uh, I'm Zuko." He extends a hand and Ty Lee stares at it. She realizes he is trying to shake hands too late, because he pulls his hand away and awkwardly wipes it on his jeans.

Ty Lee has decided that he is _definitely_ a prince. How classy is shaking hands?

"I have these cinnamon cookies my mom told me to take over, and, you know, I've been given the super grand task of greeting our latest human sacrifices." Ty Lee deviously smiles.

"Our what?" he demands, his eyebrows shooting up.

"I'm kidding. You look really scared. Oh, sorry, I mean…" Ty Lee smiles and he forgets any transgression that may have happened. "I'm supposed to welcome you all."

"You can come inside, if you want," Zuko says, gesturing towards the large farmhouse.

Ty Lee nods, grabs the cinnamon cookies, and follows Zuko across the yard and in through the front door. It is painted such a lovely color of red. She forgets about the door, however, the moment she walks inside and sees the furniture that is mostly set up.

It is the fanciest stuff Ty Lee has ever seen. She feels like she is in a beautiful museum.

"Hello," says a girl who looks Ty Lee's age. She is even prettier than Zuko. Way prettier than Zuko, actually, and her hair is so glamorously styled. "Who are you?"

"Ty Lee. I'm your next door neighbor." Ty Lee licks her lips and tries to fit in. She doesn't in this house, no matter how straight she stands up.

"Next door?" The girl cocks an eyebrow before ignoring that nonsense moving on. "I am Azula, and it is very kind of you to welcome my family. Forgive my brother for being so tactless."

Ty Lee cannot compare to the regal way of speaking, so she holds up the box and says, "I have cookies."

"Alright." She does not look pleased about it, but she still looks gorgeous. "Oh, this is my brother, ZuZu, and my sister has apparently vanished. My father is arranging the master bedroom upstairs and I doubt he wants to be disturbed."

"I'd love to meet them. Or not. Whatever works." Ty Lee brightly smiles and the siblings' expressions warm. She suddenly notices the hue of their eyes. Pure gold; Ty Lee has never seen golden eyes before.

"Who's she?" asks a girl with a husky voice. She leans against the staircase railing as she examines Ty Lee. She dresses in a way that is twice as intimidating as Azula.

With the three unfamiliar teenagers staring at her, she feels both excited and like she is on trial for a crime.

"I'm Ty Lee. I'm your next door neighbor." She wonders how many times she has said that.

Azula and Zuko's sister dryly says, "There isn't a next door here. I hate this place. Did I tell you that I hate this place?"

"It's… it gets better, probably," Ty Lee says. The girl shrugs. "I guess y'all are probably from the city. Somewhere."

"We're from a lot of places," purrs Azula. "The most recent was Omashu and before that Ba Sing Se, but I was born in Caldera. We all were."

"Those are awesome! I'd love to hear about it and stuff." Ty Lee is so genuine that the trio is taken aback.

Zuko says, "I'd love to tell you. You could come over sometime."

Azula shoots him an expression of distaste and Ty Lee's shoulders shake as she tries to keep herself from giggling. Ty Lee is _very_ used to that kind of male attention.

"Your house is really fancy. I love it," Ty Lee says, looking around for the thousandth time.

"Yes. We have quite the collection of antiques," Azula smoothly says. If someone bottled her voice, they would never need oil again in their life. "My father loves the past."

"Umm, will you guys be at school? There's really like only one school, so we'd be together!" Ty Lee cannot stop smiling, because these three siblings seem pretty awesome and she would love to be friends with them.

"We will," says Azula.

"We'll see you there." Zuko sounds much more enthusiastic.

Ty Lee winks at him when she leaves.

* * *

In the evening, Zuko faces off with Ozai.

"I have no idea why you think we can hide here," Zuko says, locking eyes with his father.

They sit in their living room. The television plays, but none of them give it their full attention. Moving again has been unpleasant. They do it too often for the past hundred years. That is what happens when you have to run from what you have done instead of face the music.

"Hiding in plain sight is safer. This island is small and easy to overlook. I have no idea why you won't let this go," Ozai calmly replies. He knows all three of them disagree with the decision, but it is his to make.

"I'm going downstairs," Azula says, standing and leaving. She can already see the unnecessary fight between Zuko and their father brewing.

She wanders through the room they furnished first, before anyone like the sweet neighbor girl could disturb them. It is the workshop in the basement. It is dank and unappetizing, and it makes her sick to see. They were not rendered to this back in Caldera.

They _owned the world_ before they became convicts and then fugitives.

After passing tools that are not for making birdhouses, she stops walking at the shimmering surgical table. Always so well cleaned, as if that can make up for it being so far from a proper sacrificial altar.

Looking at that hunk of metal and remembering what her family had a mere century ago makes her feel sick.

She _looks forward_ to school tomorrow, simply so she can escape this prison.

* * *

"I heard that they're on the run from the law," says Jin to her three best friends, Ty Lee among them. She is as eager to meet the Kasai siblings as everyone else at school. "I mean; why else would anyone move here, right?"

Ty Lee, Suki, Jin and Song stand in the parking lot, waiting for the trio of new kids to arrive. Ty Lee likes lingering outside of the school in the morning, but right now she feels so _on edge_.

"So, how old are they?" Suki asks. "I think the boy is in my grade?"

"I didn't ask," Ty Lee says, shrugging. "Whatever you've heard, I've heard."

Someone grabs her from behind before she can say anything else and she screams, before bursting into laughter. Suki cocks an eyebrow at the display of the extremely oblivious Ty Lee and extremely unfortunate Sokka.

"Hey," he says as he sets her down.

"Hey!" Ty Lee chirps and her friends murmur variations of greetings.

"Are you still hiking with us tomorrow?" he asks and Ty Lee nods. "That's good. Really good."

Ty Lee gasps and he watches her, shaking his head.

"We could ask those new kids if they wanna come!" Ty Lee brightly suggests. His expression sours for a moment, but he shrugs.

"If they want, I guess. Maybe they need an initiation to the great outdoors." He crosses his arms and Ty Lee is still extremely oblivious.

"Yeah. They're city people," Ty Lee says, almost laughing at the thought of those pretty and dressed-up teenagers trekking through the wild.

"You met them?" Sokka asks.

"Oh, yeah. I went over for a couple minutes yesterday," she explains, smiling widely.

The conversation ends when its subject shows up in the parking lot. Zuko drives a very nice car that will be ruined very soon, and they get out reluctantly. Ty Lee's eyes don't follow the hot boy, for the first time in her life; they follow one of his sisters. Azula. Her name is Azula, and her gaze finds Ty Lee, sending her into a panic.

Ty Lee dashes to her first class as fast as she can.

* * *

Azula's first class is English, and she sees that she shares it with her neighbor girl, Ty Lee. She instantly walks to sit beside her, and studies her monochrome pink school supplies. Azula does not know what to make of it.

"You look so amazing," Ty Lee says cheerily. "Do you like Kyoshi Island so far?"

"Well…" Azula shrugs. "I have lived better places."

Ty Lee laughs.

"I guessed that," she chirps.

* * *

Suki leans against a locker with Ty Lee during their mutual free period.

"They're pretty. I don't know what I think of them as people, but they _are_ pretty," she says.

"Right?" Ty Lee replies eagerly.

"I met Zuko in Math. He's okay," Suki says. "I think he's the prettiest."

"Maybe." Ty Lee doesn't know. "I wonder why they don't wanna talk to anyone."

"They're probably really on the run from the law," Suki jokes, then shakes her head. "I'd be scared too. I love Kyoshi Island to pieces, but everyone is kind of looking at them like they're in an aquarium."

"Towns in the four digit range kind of do that," Ty Lee replies. "We could eat lunch with them. That would be so nice. They really should feel way more welcomed than they do."

"We could. I hate to say this, but I'm kind of… wary. I don't like the way they look at everyone else either," Suki admits shamelessly and Ty Lee frowns at her. "What? I'm not completely dazzled by golden eyes and impeccable skin. The world isn't separated into pretty people and bad people."

"I forget that sometimes." Ty Lee doesn't know what to say other than the truth.

Suki smiles. "I know it."

* * *

Azula sits beside Mai. They hide outside of the cafeteria, away from the eyes that already seem so skeptical.

"I want to go home. I have no idea what our home is, but I want to go there. This place is awful," Azula whispers.

"We're on the same page," Mai replies. "I almost hope we get caught and have to leave. Maybe you can date that girl who's so damned in love with you."

"Who?" Azula asks. If she had a pulse, it would rage.

"Our _next door_ neighbor," Mai says. "It's almost funny how she looks at you. All of us, but mostly you."

"I am not Zuko. I have a sense of self-preservation, and therefore will not get tangled up in a _romance_ that will inevitably end in ashes," Azula says. She does not want to sound so _vehement_ , but she feels that way.

Mai stares at her for what feels like decades.

"You're way too old for this virgin thing. It's kind of pathetic," Mai finally says.

Azula does not even bother with a response.


	2. convict

_**chapter two: welcoming the new kids**_

* * *

Ty Lee sits on a rock outside of her house on a rare sunny day. This is way less Ember Island and way more Angry-Sky-Spirit Island, and she never has liked that much.

She hears the rumbling of a car engine and looks up just as it comes to a stop, and a loud, familiar voice calls out, "They're weird!"

"Be quieter! They're next door!" Ty Lee shouts at Sokka.

"Yeah…" Sokka gives Ty Lee the same look that the Kasais gave her. He steps the rest of the way out of his truck and walks up Ty Lee's yard. "So, why did they move here, anyway?"

"I didn't interrogate any of them. I think they're glamorous."

"Okay, I'm going to give you the harsh truth: they're just like any other city people who move here. They'll be gone as soon as they realize the sun is a no-show basically every day."

Ty Lee ignores him.

"Have you ever met somebody from Caldera?"

"Not that I know of. Why?"

"I don't know. I think that's the glamorous part."

"I tried to talk to the sullen one."

"Mai?"

"Key word 'tried'. She wasn't very talkative."

"A lot of girls aren't very talkative to you."

"Hey!"

"But, _she_ doesn't seem talkative to _anybody_. I'm going over there to invite them hiking with us. I think it'll be fun!"

"You said that," Sokka says, frowning. "I don't like them. They're creepy."

"Stop being mean. I bet they're just uncomfortable. We could make them comfortable," Ty Lee says, smiling. He still looks bitter and so she bats her eyelashes. "For _me_."

"For you," he agrees. He leans against his truck.

"I'll go over to their house and invite them! Be right back!" Ty Lee waves and runs.

She does not notice how he watches her when she leaves.

* * *

On Friday, Zuko goes for a drive. He has one task and one task only to fulfill for his family, and he will not fail them. Unfortunately, Kyoshi Island has one bridge leading to the mainland, right into the port of a mid-sized city. He _should_ be able to find prey there.

Getting that prey all the way back to the middle of nowhere is another problem entirely.

Azula being the most obnoxious backseat driver in all of history does not make things easier either.

"I should do this for you," says his little sister. "I don't think you're capable of capturing someone without falling in love with them. It's like reverse capture-bonding with you."

Zuko points at a flashing billboard ad. "We are going to that concert. There will be drunk people there, and young people who feel angry at their parents."

"Someone will definitely put me on their shoulders," Azula grumbles. Being frozen in time as a small fourteen-year-old is the sole most depressing thing on the planet.

"That will make my night," Zuko says, chuckling.

"We will take the person who puts me on their shoulders," Azula snarls, narrowing her eyes.

"Good enough for me." Zuko shrugs. He does not care who they take.

The silence is uncomfortable.

Zuko clears his throat.

"Do you like school?" he asks weakly.

"I hate it," Azula replies. "There are infinitely more productive things I could do with my time. I _conquered_ places. _Conquered_ places! Now I learn about _biology_ from an old perv while sitting next to a girl who seems to have stumbled out of a coloring book owned by a child who only owns two pink crayons."

"I think that girl is hot. Do you not think she's hot? Aren't you into girls?"

"Yes. I am, but I am restraining myself."

"Why? I really know we ask you that a lot, but why?"

"Because I like to be in control, and I know what that will do to me."

"Whatever. You don't have to be so damned harsh and bitter about this."

"I do. You people do not _listen_ unless I am strict and cruel."

"Kind of valid."

Azula turns on the radio.

* * *

Zuko hands Azula the tickets he just purchased and walks into the park. The fountain in the middle has dried up and the ground has been littered to an extent that Zuko has not seen in over a thousand years of life. Or undeath at least.

"This place is gross," Zuko comments, but when he turns to the person he thought he was talking to, he sees she is gone. Azula is missing, Zuko is at a disgusting concert for a band he has never heard of, and they need to successfully kidnap someone and keep them kidnapped for an hour-long drive.

The harsh reality sinks in; he has hit a new low.

* * *

Azula cannot get Zuko and Mai's comments out of her head. They bother her to no end.

"Can you switch places with me?" asks a girl over the music. She taps Azula on the shoulder.

"Why?" Azula demands, turning to see a very attractive young woman. Beside her is a very large man who looks to be in his mid-twenties.

"Because he keeps trying to put me on his shoulders," the girl comments.

"I do not want to be put on his shoulders either," Azula says and the girl looks crestfallen. Sighing, the vampiress steps around the girl, her hand on the railing of the balcony, and she punches the man directly in the face.

He falls backwards, screaming, and crashes into his far thinner friend.

"Does that fix your problem?" Azula asks coldly, unclenching her fist and stretching her hand.

"Wow," the girl says, grinning.

Her innocence is almost endearing. Azula looks down at the man; he is out cold. She could sneak him out to Zuko and leave this music that makes her want to amputate her ears, but then she thinks about Mai and Zuko and their frustrating comments.

"So," Azula purrs, turning around and pulling down her hair. "What's your name?"

"Kanona."

* * *

This is not the smartest thing Azula has ever done.

She knows she can defend herself, especially against _Kanona_ , the talkative and vapid girl driving Azula through the damp and crowded streets. But she cannot protect herself from what she was born as, and what she has been for longer than the oldest building in this city has stood.

They reach the saddest apartment Azula has ever seen in her life. It is so barren and small. Azula never imagined this before, but she never would have pictured it in this place.

"Is something wrong?" slurs the very drunk _Kanona_.

"No. Do you live alone?" Azula asks, speaking to silence her second thoughts.

"No one will bother us. My parents don't even live in this country."

"Oh." _Good_. "That is interesting."

At least lies are familiar territory.

* * *

Azula has taken many lives. Murders to prove points or in brief fits of rage or for the rush of power or to watch the expression fade. But she has never fed herself. Other people have always done that for her; she has watched lives be drained away.

She has not felt it. The sensation is incredibly strong.

It starts with a soft kiss, barely touching her lips, just teasing her. Testing the strength of Azula's overwhelming charm. The vacancy in Kanona's eyes is familiar to a young woman who does love destroying people mentally.

Those intoxicated eyes close and her face turns upward, allowing the vampiress to touch her in any way she pleases. The sex part comes naturally, but somehow scares her more than what she knows will happen. The possibility of this going _wrong_ crosses Azula's mind and she pulls away. This insignificant human girl could survive this, and Azula would be responsible for her new immortal pal.

Is that what scares Azula about this?

No good has ever come of turning a human.

Kanona kisses her and Azula digs her nails into her back in a harsh motion reminiscent of a bear trap. Azula leans in and the moment she slides onto her lap she begins to feel it. A body draining beneath hers. _Draining_ is the only way to describe it, but it feels like nothing humans made words for.

Despite the urge to just push her down and spread her open, Azula wants to draw this out. This will be the first and last time she does this. Spite for her siblings is not worth it.

It is two kinds of torture.

* * *

Azula has to hitch two rides home, because she has no desire to _walk_. Just because she _can_ does not mean she _will_. She makes the second temporary-thrall leave her near a field, and she walks across the gravel from there.

She arrives at her brand new home and sees Zuko's car. He better have caught someone. Azula walks up to the doorstep and inside and begins to creep through the house. No one has noticed her yet; she might be able to reach her bedroom unnoticed but…

"Where _were_ you?" her father growls and Azula freezes. She has heard him livid and frightening, but only to Zuko or victims or underlings. Not her, not the perfect daughter. "Your brother came home, but you didn't. Do you know how disappointing that was?"

"I am an all-powerful being and you do not need to worry about me."

"You are my daughter by blood and therefore the only person I worry about."

"I was fine." Azula begins to walk away before she changes her mind. "I'm sorry, father."

With that, she runs off to her bedroom.

* * *

In the morning, Azula does not want to _hike_. She does not want to stop staring at her ceiling, but she promised the neighbor girl she would do it, and Zuko and Mai already wanted to murder her. Now she stands with some guy and his hot sister, with neighbor girl at the helm of their adventure.

"It's _so_ beautiful here!" Ty Lee announces to four relatively unenthused teenagers. "Right?"

"Yeah," Katara says, walking forward and resting her hand on Ty Lee's back.

They stare out at the bay from the edge of a cliff. Two cars are parked behind them, and an eroded sign marks the hiking trail nearby. The mountains jut up above the ocean, and climbing them seems to be as much a hobby as fishing to the islanders.

Azula sincerely hopes this is enough _fitting in_ to save their skins. She does not like the wilderness. Mai and Zuko are not fans either.

Zuko clearly is in love with the neighbor girl. Mai had to be forced into the car against her will. Azula still cannot stop thinking about Kanona. Not as a person, but the experience that makes everything look so different to her. She wonders if it is like that for humans too, or if this is what they warned her about.

"We're going to go up to the top. The view is great, and you guys will love it!" Ty Lee says, grabbing Azula by the waist.

Azula gently pushes her away, and she latches on to Mai instead.

What a fun way to start the day.

* * *

Ty Lee talks to Mai for the entire trip up the mountain. They are halfway to the top when Mai freezes and takes two steps back.

"Did anyone hear that?" she asks.

No one has a chance to say that they didn't before the mountain decides to break apart on top of them. Zuko grabs Mai by the wrist and pulls her away from the rocks, seizing Katara before they fall to the hard ground. Sokka dodges.

Ty Lee thinks her life might flash before her eyes as the huge boulders tumble.

Then a hand collides with her chest, knocking her backwards as the world blurs around her. Azula stops a boulder with one hand, and shoves it down the hill. Ty Lee turns over, breathless, and watches it fall.

Ty Lee stares up at Azula.

"Thanks?" is all she can think of to say.


	3. harsh

**_chapter three: flight of the mother_**

* * *

 _Five days before Ursa left the Kasai Coven, she drank the blood of a runaway boy. Her family shared it. Her family. Two children, one of which she got along with, and one husband who was not right for her, but did not give her much of a choice. There was a girl left; Zuko picked up both of them together. They were teenage lovers who fled their home in the Fire Nation; they went straight to Ember Island, the current home of the Kasai Coven._

 _That night, she fell asleep alone in her bed, as she always did._

 _She woke hours later to a girl screaming hysterically. Prisoners did tend to scream for help or yelp in the night or break down loudly, and it was always her job to calm them down. The power of enthrallment manifested itself differently from vampire to vampire, and she was very talented at soothing and ensnaring. She could even do it to other vampires._

 _Ursa got up, leaving her husband in bed, and walked down into their current basement. The runaway girl had been so stoic and silent, unwilling to give in to her captors even after seeing drained corpses and the death of her boyfriend. She was now howling as if she had never experienced a worse pain._

 _It took Ursa a moment to realize that the girl probably had not felt anything worse than this._

 _The girl was tangled in the first phase of a transformation. A transformation. That… was unusual in her family._

 _She unlocked the bars and slowly quieted the girl's screaming, and then picked her up. Ursa carried her to the guest room and sat beside her in that bed._

 _The girl woke and screamed more. She must be feeling that fire in her veins. That agonizing fire that overcomes the other feelings._

 _Ursa sat beside her throughout the rest of the night._

 _Four days before Ursa left the Kasai coven, she confronted her family at their breakfast table._

 _"We have a girl halfway to being a fledgling," Ursa announced and all three of her family members looked up at her._

 _Zuko and Azula were at a loss for words; Ozai was carefully finding the right ones to say._

 _There was no excuse._

 _This was on his head._

* * *

"Did you just…?" Sokka points at Azula grabbing Ty Lee by the arm and yanking her by the feet.

"Narrowly avoid a rock? Yes," Azula replies without a second thought. Lying becomes such second nature by the first century of undeath.

He looks at her with a skeptical glint in his eyes, but she knows he can prove nothing. Her family has survived long enough while narrowly avoiding the law. But if their enemies catch up to the them…

No, the three human teens are not a threat. The semi-siblings could see the mutual agreement in each other's eyes.

Zuko gets up off of the hot sister and brushes himself off. He offers her a hand to help her up but she brushes it aside and hops to her feet. Sokka still has his eyes narrowed on Azula, but she pays him no mind.

"Shall we continue our scenic hike?" Azula asks, glancing between her companions.

Zuko nods and begins to lead the way. Ty Lee lingers with her eyes on Azula.

"How did you do that?" she whispers.

"Do what?" Azula retorts, and Ty Lee swallows her further questions.

It is odd, and nothing more.

* * *

After the hike, Katara sits down on the couch beside Sokka. He has his eyes locked on the television, watching some sport Katara does not care about.

She says to her brother, "There's something weird about those Kasais. I'm going to look some stuff up in dad's books."

"So, do you think they're fish or something?" Sokka cocks an eyebrow. The books of a marine biologist probably do not offer much insight into three weird siblings.

" _No_ , but I think they're…" Katara blushes. "I think I don't have to explain myself to you."

Sokka realizes what books Katara is talking about. They are the legends of their dissolved tribe; Hakoda knew all of them before his death.

"You think they're mythical creatures." Sokka stifles a laugh.

"The Unagi was real," Katara snaps, wagging a finger at him.

Sokka pauses the television and turns to her. "Yeah, but werewolves aren't."

"You don't know that. Just because you haven't seen one doesn't mean they don't exist. Now you can come learn about—supposedly—mythical creatures with me, or you can learn nothing because you might not like what you find out." Katara stands up and crosses her arms. She is _going_ to learn about the myths; she vaguely remembers one that feels familiar.

"I'm very educated. And smart. Which is why I don't believe in fairies," Sokka replies, cocking an eyebrow.

"You know what you saw. She stopped a rock with her bare hands, and did you see how fast Zuko moves?" Katara remembers him tackling her; he moved faster than a blur.

"So, they're in shape. What's it matter?" Sokka demands.

"Fine. Don't help. Stay ignorant forever." Katara shakes her head and storms off towards their dad's old study.

They barely ever go inside. Gran-Gran never does. Katara can smell the stench of dust the moment she opens the door, but the books are all intact. She flips the light switch and sees that it is burned out. Katara strides across the room and turns on the desk lamp; that one works.

Katara runs her forefinger along the old books of myths. One of them _has_ to trigger a memory. She _knows_ something about the Kasai family rings a bell.

"You're wondering about the new family, aren't you?" asks Gran-Gran. Katara jumps at the sudden voice behind her. "You'll want this volume, I think."

Gran-Gran's hand trembles as she pulls out a book. V – Z. She opens it to the first entry.

 _VAMPIRES_ , it says.

Katara gently takes the book from her Gran-Gran and begins to read.

* * *

 _Four days before Ursa leaves the Kasai Coven, she sits at the bedside of a little girl._

 _She can't be older than Azula. That makes this even more fucked up, if such a thing is possible. Ursa Kasai feels a remarkable need to protect the girl. It is almost like the human who went through went she went through and did not live. This girl would live… or something close to it._

 _The door to the guest bedroom opens and Ozai Kasai enters._

 _"Are you going to do anything but sit next to an unconscious woman?" he asks._

 _"Girl," Ursa corrects vehemently. "She is a_ girl _, and you killed her."_

 _It is one of the last things she ever says to her husband._

* * *

Ty Lee rides her bike to the Kasai house on Sunday afternoon. She knows she probably should not just pop in on them, so she stabs the wheel of her bike with a sharp rock. Well, what else could she do? She never got any of their cellphone numbers.

 _They don't seem to like people very much_ , she notes as she walks her bike over the dirt road. Being so secretive in such a small town can only attract negative attention, and Ty Lee feels extremely curious about her next door neighbors.

She opens the gate and walks up to the Kasai family's front door. Ty Lee knocks on it twice before it swings open and Azula answers. It makes Ty Lee's eyes flash to see the girl who performed a feat worthy of Superman.

"Do you need something?" Azula asks coolly and Ty Lee nods.

"My bike's tire popped while I was on my way home. Do you think maybe you could give me a ride please?" Ty Lee bats her eyelashes, which always gets her her way.

"Yes, but I cannot drive and so we have to wait for my brother to get home," Azula says.

Azula escorts Ty Lee inside and shuts the door behind it. She instinctually locks it, something odd for people on Kyoshi Island.

 _She's from a big city_ , Ty Lee reminds herself.

"Thank you for saving me from those rocks," says Ty Lee and Azula tenses up. Ty Lee wonders why that bothers her neighbor. "It was awesome."

 _It was weird_ , Ty Lee thinks to herself.

"I should offer you a drink," Azula says, knowing this girl will not be easy to shake off.

Ty Lee follows her into the kitchen and watches her open a very barren fridge. Only two items are inside; a half-empty liter of soda-pop and a closed, opaque Tupperware container. Yeah, these people are even weirder than Ty Lee thought.

Azula pours Ty Lee the cola and hands it over. She then sits down on her antique table and gazes at her guest. If Ty Lee starts asking too many questions about those rocks, Azula is screwed. Her family cannot afford to get caught again.

"Thanks." Ty Lee beams. "So, are y'all settling in?"

"Yes," Azula says. "This place is very friendly."

"It really is." Ty Lee smiles again. Azula wonders if she is actually that happy or if it is an act. "So, you and your brother look super alike."

Azula notices how often Ty Lee mentions appearance. She probably is just shallow, but it piques Azula's interest.

"I suppose we do, but he's my half-brother, actually," Azula says. She cannot believe that that slipped out. Mai is her twin; Zuko her elder brother. The eyes and fortunate dark hair made them all look the same, and the less people—read: humans—knew about them, the better.

"Oh," Ty Lee says, blinking and waiting for more.

"My mother died, but his mother ran away, so my situation is far better," Azula says, smirking. And out slips the fact that the woman who raised and despised her left their coven—read: family—out of her own petty jealousy.

Or so Azula has always assumed. It was two-hundred years ago and she never pursued answers. She is glad that woman ran off with no ability to return. Once you leave, you leave forever. That is how their species works.

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee says. It could not be more awkward. "Did you know your mother?"

"No. I don't even know her name, and I don't need to," Azula answers. She mentally adds _'and it was an affair anyway, so she probably would not have stuck around for long.'_

"Your family is probably less fucked up than mine," Ty Lee comments, laughing.

Azula smirks. Humans are cute.

"I doubt that," Azula purrs. "You didn't need to hear so much about my life."

"No, no, I love learning about you. You're so interesting and pretty," Ty Lee says swiftly.

"I know," Azula says. She does love hearing it again and again, however.

The door opens and Zuko walks in before the conversation can progress.

Azula thinks that may be a good thing.

* * *

"Humans who are not food do not come into the house," Ozai chastises coldly. His eyes bore into his anxious daughter. Azula has never been spoken to by her father like this before, and it makes her feel sick. "Don't let that neighbor girl in again. I don't care if her bike is broken or even if she has a _head injury_."

Azula glares at Zuko. He did _not_ have to _tattle._

"I apologize, father," Azula replies, bowing her head slightly.

"And you never explained last night," Ozai growls.

Azula contemplates her answer for the few moments she can afford.

"I went home with a girl. To her home, I mean." Azula hopes he can put together the pieces on his own, but she has no such luck. He wants her to continue. "I was a little tired of hearing about how pathetic I am. I suppose I was missing out on something very… fun."

Fun is such a lackluster word for it.

"She better be dead," Ozai says. He looks disappointed and Azula wants to cry.

"Of course she is," Azula replies honestly.

He permits her to leave.


	4. learning

**_chapter four: always cold_**

* * *

 _Three days before Ursa leaves the Kasai Coven, she watches her ward wake up. The girl had amber eyes before, Ursa thinks, but now they are glimmering gold. The girl was pale already, but now she is the shade of milk. Any imperfections, erased. Any humanity, erased._

 _"I feel hungover," the girl slurs, squinting at the sun pouring through the window. "What did I drink last…?"_

 _Ursa sees the look in the girl's eyes when she remembers all that happened._

 _"It's okay," says Ursa tenderly, touching the girl's shoulder. The fledging vampire shrugs her off._

 _"No, no, no, it's not. What are you?" The girl gazes at her own hand. "What am_ I _?"_

 _"A vampire," Ursa says bluntly. "And you are part of our coven unless you choose to leave."_

 _The girl can only stare at her in disbelief._

 _When these freaks caught her, she was running away from home. No, not running away from home; she was running_ to _home, wherever that was._

 _Maybe home is here, as disgusting as that is._

* * *

Azula has a recurring dream. It involves herself and her real mother, the mother she never met but fantasizes about in her waking hours as well. Her real mother is a vampire in a blue kimono and Azula follows her. Their golden eyes pierce the night as they hunt humans.

Together. Mother and daughter.

When Azula wakes from it, she shakes it off like she always does.

She has her father. Her father, who waits for her in the kitchen when she comes downstairs. Azula is dressed and decorated for school; she had hoped to escape the house without this.

"I am almost late," Azula says.

"You're not going," he replies, staggering her. "I'm not running again."

"We might have to anyway," Azula urges, despite setting down her backpack. "I am not Zuko. I am not a risk to our family."

"You think so," he says. He sits in his flimsy kitchen chair as if it were the throne he lost; it makes it difficult to stand against him, even for the most powerful of beings. "You might be wrong."

"Perhaps I would like to interact with people," Azula says. It is the truth.

"You're staying here in this house, and you're not letting any humans in. I will reverse that judgment when I know I can trust you," he orders. He almost sounds like a king again. Almost.

"Father," Azula reluctantly says, "I will not argue with your punishment but I want to say one thing."

"I'm listening," he growls, and she knows he will not take it well.

Should she change her mind?

"I wish you had waited longer," Azula says. He shakes his head, puzzled. "I wish you had waited longer to turn me. It's very painful to feel five-hundred but be fourteen."

He never has answered that question. Never once has Ozai explained to his daughter why he could not have four or five years of patience.

"I wanted a little girl. No other reason."

"So, I am lucky that I am not seven?" she asks, her composure vanishing in an instant.

"Yes. Yes, you are," he replies, so calmly, as if it does not enrage her.

"I have never met a vampire my age, or Mai's age, or Zuko's age, who is content. We might as well be immortal children. Immortal adolescents is just as bad, in its own way."

"You've never mentioned this in half of a thousand years. That's a long time to bottle these feelings up."

"I do not like being your little girl anymore."

Azula dashes up the stairs, tearing her hair from its bun and removing her jacket on her way.

* * *

 _Two days before Ursa leaves the Kasai Coven, she introduces her ward to Zuko, Azula and Ozai._

 _"What's your name?" asks Zuko, not taking his eyes off of her._

 _His father glares at Zuko; he does not want anyone looking at the new vampire. Zuko wonders if his father feels anything about doing something so irreversible. It will change their family permanently. Zuko kind of does not mind._

 _Everyone else does; it is clear in their eyes as they wait for the dizzy girl to respond._

 _The fledgling vampire hesitates. At last, she decides to be open for once._

 _"Mai. I'm Mai."_

* * *

At school, Ty Lee notices that Azula is not at school and… it bothers her, for some reason. She has tons of friends and does not ever have to worry about being alone, but she was really looking forward to seeing one person in particular.

Azula puzzles her for countless reasons. Stopping a boulder with her bare hands is the least of her oddities, and Ty Lee is too intrigued to turn away.

"Where's your sister?" Ty Lee asks Zuko. She finds him in the library. He looks like he is studying, but, on closer inspection, she sees that he is playing a game on his phone. "I mean; is she okay, I guess. It's nice to see you."

Zuko's lips twitch.

"It's nice to see you too," he says and she sits down across from him. "She's sick."

"Oh." Ty Lee wishes she had more to say. "I see you're studying hard."

"Yep." He smiles at her.

Ty Lee sits across from him in silence, playing with her phone. His prettiness distracts her, and his stillness is strange. His golden eyes are something she has never seen.

"Do you want to go out sometime?" escapes her lips right before the period ends.

Zuko stares at her blankly. He still seems like a statue.

"That sounds good," he says slowly and Ty Lee smiles.

Zuko realizes that he is making the same mistake again.

Ty Lee realizes that she is incredibly infatuated with the Kasai Family.

There is no reversing either of those truths.

* * *

Azula has never been _angsty_ about what she is. She was born into it and never knew what being human was like. However, her family once lived with another coven. They were also on the run from the law; they had dedicated themselves to finding a way to reverse vampirism.

It never has felt like a disease, but some people consider it to be one.

At the moment, as Azula sits in her room, she wonders what kind of vampire would want to reverse their condition. She wonders if she is one of them.

That night after the concert, she experienced a side of what she is that tears her to pieces. She should have stayed a pathetic virgin, because desire for blood is natural and desire for that seduction is overwhelming.

She thinks about the thoughts in her head when the neighbor girl waltzed right in. It felt like being a spider-cat that laid a trap.

Azula believes for the first time that she would reverse her vampirism, because all she wants is to be in control. To not be barely more than a child, to not be a slave to desires, to not be chased across the globe, to not have no one to relate to but humans.

Humans. Azula is infinitely their greater.

Maybe that is why it seems like it would be so much easier to be one.

* * *

Mai paints Azula's nails in their bedroom.

Azula has been tyrannically micromanaging the entire progress. Mai picked a terrible day to start feeling pity towards others and she knows it. Empathy is difficult when you outlive or murder everyone you encounter; it is even hard between other vampires. However, Mai thinks Azula might have always been a psychopath.

"She was asking about you at school. Zuko told me," Mai says, attempting girl talk as she finishes the top coat.

"I don't think we're allowed to talk about her," Azula says, grabbing the bottle from Mai and screwing on the cap. She does it with an angry fervor.

"His overreaction has nothing to do with her. Letting a human into the house for five minutes shouldn't be a capital offense. He… no one has ever gone sane with power, if you know what I mean," Mai says. Azula cannot agree with her; she cares about her father too much.

"To be fair to him, he's just trying to prevent another incident," Azula justifies vehemently. Mai rolls her eyes.

"Tell yourself what you want," Mai says, sighing. "I know I won't stop you from doing whatever you want to do when you want to do it. Personally, I think he just misses being a dictator."

Mai has a point, but Azula's family was on the run before Mai was even born.

"Where's Zuko?" Azula demands, an incredibly odd question for her. She feels rather desperate to avoid thinking about her five-hundred-year stint as a princess.

"Trying out for the football team," Mai says dryly. He seems to think it will impress ladies, or men, or something. She finds it pathetic.

"Well, _that_ isn't flaunting our identity at all. Why is my father letting _that_ happen, but I can't offer a human a drink?" Azula demands viciously.

"Your girlfriend is a cheerleader," Mai says, and Azula mouths _not my girlfriend_. "Maybe I could bust you out under the pretense of visiting Zuko."

Mai winks, which looks weird as fuck on her face.

"If my father allows it," Azula forces herself to say. It sounds quite nice to break out of jail, but she cannot risk angering him further.

"He'll allow it if we don't tell him until after we do it," Mai says.

"You have a death wish," Azula says, sighing.

"Immortality is boring," Mai replies. "Get your coat."

"Do not order me around!" Azula snarls. She calms down. "Fine. Waste of a manicure…"

She grabs her jacket.

* * *

On the bleachers, Ty Lee listens to her cassette player with earbuds in. Everything sounds and looks so much prettier to the tune of pop music. She has to wait for her ride to stop making out with her boyfriend so they can have their afternoon at the beach. Ty Lee usually thinks love is cute, but this bothers her to the core.

Her eyes drift again and again to Zuko. He has supernatural strength and speed. She is super impressed by him and even more captivated by him. Ty Lee does not think she will ever look away until two girls sit on either side of her. They smell so nice. She cannot place the perfume, but it makes her feel so calm and happy. She pulls out her headphones and greets the Kasai sisters.

"Zuko is so good!" Ty Lee says eagerly, pointing at him.

Neither girl takes the compliment for him. They do not seem to agree with her.

"He is pathetic athletically compared to me," Azula says, smirking as she thinks about her own prowess. She is _way_ better than Zuko, or so she thinks.

Ty Lee laughs, even though she is not sure if it is a joke or not. A thought occurs to her.

"Me and Suki and Jin are going to the beach after this," she says. "You three could come and prove your talents by playing volleyball with us. I love volleyball and I love you guys so much. We'll be like best friends soon."

Ty Lee reaches to put her arm around Mai, but Mai recoils. Maybe Ty Lee spoke a little too soon.

"It is a cold day for the beach," Azula says as an uncomfortable feeling washes over her.

It feels like a vibration of sorts, or at least something eerie resonating from her insides. Her thoughts scare her, and she is not easily frightened. She needs to get out of here, or at least away from this cheerleader.

"It's _always_ cold on Kyoshi Island," Ty Lee says, tapping at the sweater she wears over her uniform. It is a very sexy uniform and Azula catches herself thinking about that. Bad.

Azula glares at Mai. If she agrees to this, her father will probably lock her in a coffin until the end of time. Unless Azula locks herself up first.

"I should just go home," Azula says, staring at Mai, giving her _that_ look. It is one that belongs to an empress ordering around a servant, and Mai knows better than to fight against it.

Ty Lee takes Azula's hand and quickly pulls away. Azula is colder than a corpse, but Ty Lee shakes that off as fast as she possibly can.

"Please," begs Ty Lee. Smiling up at Azula, she looks so hopeful. "It'll be fun. I promise."

Azula gazes at the human and feels that alien instinct again. She clears her throat.

"Maybe this weekend when I'm feeling better. I'm still much too sick to go play in the mud," Azula says, and then she imagines Ty Lee in the mud and shoots herself in the foot. Fuck. "If you want, we can give you a ride home. I'll go get Zuko."

Why did Azula say that?

She is _excellent_ at putting her foot down.

This human is bad news. Azula has to rid herself of Ty Lee at all costs.

* * *

Azula turns up the radio full blast during the ride home from school. She does not relax until Ty Lee gets out of the car, grabs her pink backpack and runs up her gravel driveway. Azula slams the door shut and shoves Mai's shoulder to make her drive.

Once they pull up to their driveway, Mai locks the doors.

"What's wrong with you? I risked my own damned neck taking you there to get a date with that girl, and you completely blow her off," Mai demands. "I drove you out there for nothing."

"I thought you were supposed to pick me up," Zuko interrupts and Mai waves her hand at him.

"I can't be around her," Azula says, unsnapping her seatbelt.

"Why?" Mai asks.

Azula sits still, struggling to form the words in her mouth.

"Because I want to fuck her," she at last snarls. Azula walks inside, hurrying to get to her room slash prison cell before Ozai gets home from work.

Maybe his tyrannical rules have some merit.

* * *

"What's wrong with me?" Ty Lee asks Sokka in the cafeteria. She keeps staring at the table that the Kasai kids are sitting at. "She's like going out of her way to avoid me. She saved my life but I think she hates me. Do you think she hates me?"

Sokka shrugs. "I think you value her opinion too much. There's nothing wrong with you at all."

Ty Lee hugs him tightly. He almost drops his sandwich.

"You're an amazing friend but really, she even convinced Mr. Wan to let her sit away from me. He's like the most hardassed hardass in all of history. She must really want to avoid me. Like _really_ hate me or something."

"So what? You don't need someone like her in your life," he says. He feels jealousy bubbling up inside of him, but silences it. Sokka refuses to let Katara be right about that. Thinking of Katara, he hopes her crazy vampire theory is right. He's sick of those three already.

"Maybe you're right," Ty Lee says, although she is not convinced.

She needs people to need her. She needs people to notice her and love her and want her. She needs to know why she cannot stop thinking about the new girl.

It feels like a nightmare.


	5. reversal

_**chapter five: first snow**_

* * *

It is the first snow of the year on Kyoshi Island.

Ty Lee picks out her favorite pink parka to wear to school. She finds her cutest gloves and her real rabbit fur earmuffs, and her most adorable boots. Her outfit brings her extreme glee and she is thrilled to see everyone else's way less coordinated snow gear.

She sees her friends, who are dressed to perfection…

Then she sees her next door neighbors, who are not even wearing coats. They look like they are on a _tropical_ island. And are still in their little homogenous huddle outside of Zuko's car. Ty Lee wonders if they are ever separate from each other for long.

They seem extremely attached to each other.

"She's been giving you the cold shoulder all week," Suki says. "Don't approach Azula. I'm serious. She's trying to drop a hint about you."

"But I bet she just wants a friend."

"Ty Lee, honey, she could not be colder to you if she were a literal glacier," is Suki's _very kind_ response. Ty Lee huffs and walks into the school.

"I'm not quitting because of that," Ty Lee says.

Suki does not think she can win this argument.

* * *

Azula wishes Ty Lee did not sit next to her in class.

She has been successfully ignoring her, but that time is up as of today. Ty Lee taps on her and passes her a note. Azula rolls her eyes, but unfolds it.

 _Let's have a sleepover tomorrow._

Azula picks up her pen to write _No_ , but then thinks about how frustrated she has been at home. It would certainly leave an impact on her terrible coven. So, she writes _Yes_ and hands it back to the girl who will not give up.

Her frigidness does not seem to work on neighbor girl, so she might as well run with it.

* * *

After doing her homework, Azula walks downstairs and sees her family sitting in the living room. Zuko is on the armchair with his phone out. The television is on some horror movie Azula does not recognize and her father has his arm draped around Mai. Maybe not draped. It is stronger than that.

Azula clears her throat when they do not notice her.

"Ty Lee is spending the night tomorrow," Azula says and her whole coven simultaneously looks up at her. Mai turns off the television, because this is going to be much more interesting than what she was watching. "She asked me and I impulsively agreed."

"I gave you one rule. No humans in the house," Ozai says. "Unless they are groceries."

"I've never had a friend before," Azula says, even if she knows he is right. She used to have no problem with following his rules, but living on Kyoshi Island has changed her attitude about many things. Mostly by erasing any positive feelings she has towards her life. Or unlife.

"You have Mai," Ozai states.

"Mai is my sister… or something similar. I have never been good at making friends and this girl is throwing herself at me. I have tried to be cold as ice towards her, but she does not take a hint. That kind of dedication impresses me and I think it should be rewarded," says Azula and Ozai sits back. "Why can't I pretend to be normal for once?"

Ozai continues staring at her, looking like he is going to rip someone's throat out with his teeth. It would have worked once. It would have worked for the past centuries, because no one _does not_ fear him, and Azula is no exception. But after last time they had to move, she has begun to despise her coven.

"You're not normal, and it's not worth pretending," Ozai says.

Azula sighs. "I am not Zuko. I will not make any mistakes. You know me and you know how precise and intelligent I am."

"You haven't been the same since you went to that concert," Ozai growls, now angry. Azula is afraid for the first time, and decides to flee.

Azula walks towards the stairs, storming off for no reason. Mai follows her with her eyes. Zuko sits and feels grateful that his father is fighting with someone other than him for once, especially with the good child.

She reconsiders her flight, however, when she hears the silence.

"I deeply regret sleeping with that stupid girl from that stupid concert," Azula snaps, stopping on the stairs. She turns to face her coven. "It has ruined my life. I was much happier as a virgin and I'm openly admitting that. Don't tell me that I shouldn't sleep with someone because we could have an _accident_. I can make that decision on my own, and I _have_. I'm so sick of being a child. I am going to run away one of these days."

"No, you won't, because you can never come back," Ozai says. Azula averts her eyes; he is right about that. "I doubt you could take care of yourself on your own. Our family is all we have."

"Family is so important to the man who killed his own father?" Azula exclaims, turning up her palms with wide eyes. "Family is so important to the man who got everyone he loved de _throned_ and made into _fugitives_? I find that hard to believe."

She has never spoken against him. Azula has always been the perfect daughter, but she has not been since they moved to Kyoshi Island. Her attitude towards her father turned from warm and admiring into glacial and bitter.

Azula goes up to her room and slams the door multiple times.

Mai cannot help but comment, "She has a crush on the neighbor girl. It's kind of entertaining how she can't decide if she wants to have slumber parties with her or push her off of a cliff. This whole week she's been avoiding Ty Lee at all costs, and now she wants to get cozy with her. Is that love?"

"Crushes don't happen with us," Ozai says, turning away from where his daughter left. He needs to rein her back in, but he knows she will make that difficult. "Infatuation does, and infatuation ends with the death of the poor little human girl."

"Not always," Mai whispers, and Zuko rubs his neck uncomfortably. He does not like that it is her saying it.

Ozai ignores her comment, "Either way it makes you feel helpless to desire someone more than blood, and I don't think she can handle that. Neighbor girl won't last long."

"I'm going downstairs. Zuko, come help me," Mai says, breaking free of the arm around her.

Ozai finds them to be remarkably disobedient since he moved them to this island. Clearly, they are unhappy with living here in a small, rural town instead of a city, but it was his decision and if they don't like it they can leave.

He has more to fix and control than Azula; she just is the last one he would expect to behave this way.

* * *

Downstairs, Mai walks into the unfinished basement and looks at the girl curled in the fetal position on the floor. It never was sad to her, even when she was a newborn. She never cared much about other people, never even cried when her true love was dragged away down a filthy hall.

Didn't cry until she felt the acid in her veins and never cried again.

Zuko does not remember ever being anything close to human. It is impossible to relate to a girl in the cage with the lifespan of a goldfish from the carnival.

"You lift her," Mai orders.

Zuko sees no point in arguing. He does it and once they reach the pathetic excuse for a sacrificial altar, Mai holds her down and latches her to it. She screams through a gag tattered by her teeth.

"I assume we have to finish her off before Ty Lee comes over," Zuko says and Mai shrugs.

"You're probably right. At least you won't be involved in this sleepover. You know that I'll have to play along with it," Mai says bitterly, watching Zuko pick up a needle and other tools of the trade.

"I kind of like the image of you having a pillow fight," Zuko says, and Mai glowers at him. "It's sexy."

"And I bet you think that's a compliment," Mai says, stepping back and letting him do everything. He probably deserves it after saying that, but he certainly does not regret it.

"Is it not?"

* * *

The next afternoon, Ty Lee comes over with a bright pink gym bag slung over her shoulder. Mai answers the door and fights a sigh. This should be _fun_ , she sarcastically thinks to herself.

"Hi!" Ty Lee chirps, throwing her arms around Mai and holding her tightly for a few moments. Mai breaks away and looks Ty Lee up and down.

"I'm making food. Do you want dinner?" Mai offers, and if Ty Lee says no she will probably rip out her jugular. Mai does not cook, but her family's response to her protest was: _You were human recently. You know how to make food._

"Sure," Ty Lee agrees, luckily for her pretty little neck.

Mai walks to the kitchen and Ty Lee scuffs the snow from her boots and steps out of them. It smells good, Ty Lee realizes. She goes in and sees steak and some kind of salad. Azula sits at the counter, studying Ty Lee. She thinks she might want to jump out of the window, but she controls herself.

Azula should have said no. Being close to her is too hard. Being close to her is way too hard. Maybe it is something more about the way she smells than the way she looks.

"Sit down and eat," Mai says and Azula's eyes flash.

"You could _try_ to be polite."

"I could," Mai replies wryly as she shoves a plate at Ty Lee.

* * *

Mai has had her nails done, has had to watch a movie with no gore, and now has to play truth or dare with an extremely boring dare. It gets much more interesting with her and Azula and Zuko than with _Ty Lee_.

And so, out of sheer boredom, she seizes her opportunity.

"Ty Lee, truth or dare?" Mai inquires, turning off the television. The boring romance fades away. This will be a better show.

"Uh, uh, uhm," Ty Lee says, as if this is the world's hardest question. "Dare."

That is what Mai was hoping for.

"I dare you to kiss Azula," Mai says, suppressing her mischievous smirk and concealing her laugh. Her semi-sister will _destroy_ her for this, but it will be fun while it lasts.

Azula has never glared at someone more viciously. Mai winks at her.

"Oh, really?" Ty Lee says, picking at her lower lip. She swallows and turns to her right.

Azula is having second thoughts right up until the moment Ty Lee's lips touch hers. It should end quickly, but Azula leans in. She cannot help it. Ty Lee is the one to jump back. She feels so dizzy, dizzier than she would even during the fiercest of kisses. And pretty tired too.

Ty Lee thinks for a fleeting moment about just how cold Azula's lips are. Glacial cold.

"I'm going to… the bathroom," Azula lies, standing up and leaving the room before she does something she regrets.

She would kill Mai if such a thing were possible.

Ty Lee reaches for her caffeinated drink. She feels like she needs it.

Does she like Azula so much that a kiss makes her feel this lightheaded?

It is fully possible. The Kasai girl has captured her attention and Ty Lee cannot escape the web of desire no matter how hard she tries or how much Azula shuts her out.

She stares at Azula's bedding while Mai turns on a movie that is not agonizingly dull.

Yeah, Ty Lee might be in love.


	6. tyrant

**AN:** I've gotten a lot of questions about both the structure of the Kasai coven and the shipping for Mai and Zuko. I usually try to clarify things that come up more than once in reviews by working the answers into the chapters, but this is an exception since I can't find a way to fit it in that doesn't feel really forced.

Ozai is the head of the coven, Ursa was his wife but they weren't mates—a detail that does come into play as the Tyzula progresses, but I digress—but she left shortly after Mai was created. Azula doesn't have a mate for reasons that should be obvious. Zuko and Mai have had flings throughout the decades but he's more into her than she's into him… and her mate is Ozai, who she doesn't actually love but is pretty irresistibly drawn to by the vampire mate deal that is borrowed from _Twilight_ lore. At the moment, Zuko and Mai are not together. The Kasai kids will all have romantic flings with canon characters. The only thing set in stone is the background semi-Maizai and the endgame Tyzula.

* * *

 _ **chapter six: dollhouse**_

* * *

"Mai… I know… we do not talk about this but…" Azula sighs. She has her hands on her lower stomach as she lies on her bed and stares at the ceiling. Mai keeps begrudgingly pausing her violent video game as Azula struggles to spit out her problem. "I keep thinking about Ty Lee. I think about her so often. Last night she slept so close to me and…"

"Do you want me to kidnap her for you?" Mai asks dryly, turning off the console. She knows she will not get anywhere while her sort-of-sister is in a boring dilemma.

"I _would_ but you three would _eat_ her and I…" Azula blanches and digs her fingernails into her own cold skin. "I do not want her to be harmed. How is that?"

Mai wishes she could make Zuko listen to this.

* * *

Ty Lee is supposed to be making dinner. Instead, she is sitting atop a wooden dollhouse in their abandoned playroom, trying to draft the perfect text to Azula. This results in the small problem of a burning smell and the smoke detector squealing; she enlisted her younger sister to make dinner for her—a stupid idea when it came to Miri.

Swiftly, Ty Lee runs into the kitchen and finds the problem; Miri has stuck a can of soup into the microwave. Ty Lee turns off the machine as fast as she can and opens it.

"You can't put metal in a microwave. You're _twelve_. How stupid are you that you don't know you can't do that? You didn't even open it! Not that that matters but…" Ty Lee begins to listen to herself and sees Miri start to cry. Ty Lee hugs her tightly. "I'm sorry for yelling like that. It's not really your fault."

Miri wipes her eyes and sits down at the counter. Ty Lee sees that she has to make dinner now, and save her text for Azula for later.

* * *

Next door, Azula is supposed to be making dinner. Instead, she is stuck in her incessant thoughts about how pathetic she is to be interested in a bubbly human girl who dressed like a toddler in a beauty pageant. This results in the small problem of her dinner escaping; she did not tighten the restraints well enough and was distracted for a few moments—enough for the teenage runaway girl to flee the house.

Zuko sees her out of the corner of his eye and takes off. Azula races from the basement and out into the woods to beat him to her. They run, a primal, instinctual part of their being feels a rush and thrill from the hunt. This is how their kind is supposed to find food, but instead, in this world, they must be discreet.

Azula dives to tackle the prisoner as soon as the girl stumbles over a rock and falls, screaming. Zuko steps over Azula and grabs the girl by the arms, pulling her up and holding her with his supernatural strength.

Zuko stands and makes his way back to the house, Azula glaring at him.

She knows it is her fault that she lost dinner, but she still despises the idea of Zuko showing her up. Azula walks slowly through the ice cold night back to her house and slams the door behind her.

Azula stalks up to her room before anyone can comment on her failure.

* * *

At school, Azula struggles to focus on geometry. She has taken the class many, many times, and so she knows she will pass with flying colors even if she is always checked out, but Ty Lee sits across the room with her friends Suki and Jin. They laugh as they work until the teacher hushes them and threatens detention.

Azula bows her head and scratches what she can onto the paper as the teacher walks by. Slowly, she peeks back up again and keep stealing glances at the girl dressed in bubblegum pink with a silly brunette braid.

After class, she asks Mai, "What is it about her? Why can I not resist her? Why do I keep looking at her?"

Mai closes her eyes exasperatedly. If she hears about this one more time, she might just snap and lose her cool for the first time since she was human.

"Is Ty Lee why you lost dinner last night?"

"I brought dinner back," hisses Azula through her teeth.

" _Zuko_ brought dinner back. Speaking of Zuko, he made the same mistake you're going to, Azula. He told her what we were, he tried to save her and _romance_ her. You're smarter than that," Mai says, feeling the need to reiterate why they had to leave their last home.

"I have no plans to do any of that. I just want to fuck her, okay?"

"Then do it. Go on, tonight, after the football game, _do it_. Maybe you'll get lucky and she'll turn," Mai challenges. Azula struggles to breathe.

"I don't care if she turns or not." Azula manages to keep her voice from shaking.

" _Do it_ , or, as matriarch of our stupid coven, I'm going to be forced to intervene. There is no fathoming the depths of my hatred for Kyoshi Island, but I'm not risking our family again because one of those can't keep our heart in our chest."

Azula nods. "I will."

"Me and Zuko will come. I hear Ty Lee's little boyfriend is having a party at his house."

"Those kids we went hiking with?" Azula asks, sneering. "They're the _worst_."

"Their grandma is out of town, and he's a good football player. If movies haven't misled me, a house party is the perfect place to screw her," Mai says.

Azula refuses to let herself look weak, and so she knows she has to bite the bullet and do it.

* * *

"Mai," Zuko says at lunch, taking her aside and into the library, "do you seriously trust Azula with her promise about Ty Lee? I have _literally_ never seen my sister look at anything but her own reflection like that."

To that, Mai opens her mouth, but then his words set in.

"Agni, you're right. It's actually pretty alarming to know that Azula is into someone. She was like a five-hundred-year-old virgin until we moved here, and is a psychopath beyond proportions by vampire standards," Mai admits, now twirling a pencil in her nimble fingers.

"Can you talk to Ty Lee and convince her to back out while she can?" Zuko inquires. He stares deeply into her amber eyes and she sighs.

"Yes."

* * *

Mai sits down beside Ty Lee in their shared study hall. Ty Lee beams when she sees Mai.

"You've never sat by me before and I'm so happy you are and oh, I'm babbling, sorry," Ty Lee says, edging her desk closer to Mai. "How've you been since the sleepover?"

Mai miraculously does not roll her eyes.

"I want to warn you about Azula," Mai says, adopting her best girl talk persona. It is not stellar, but it is the best she can do. "I can tell you two are into each other."

"You think she's into me back?" Ty Lee asks, smiling.

"Unfortunately, yes," Mai says, which is fairly honest. "Look, Azula plays with people like dolls, but you can't just toy with people and then put them back in a box. Don't volunteer to be the star of her dollhouse. You're too sweet and generous to be used like that."

All of that was true. Huh.

"I…" Ty Lee just stares with her big meercat-owl eyes. "I didn't know that about her."

"Well, it's good to know." Mai stands up and sits down on the other side of the room.

This better work.

* * *

"You're late. You're running so late and I'm bored," Mai says to Azula.

Mai stands at the end of the row of lockers with her backpack on her feet. Azula kneels in front of her locker and seems to be rummaging around for Wan Shi Tong's Mythical Library.

"I am staying after school today, so I will be going home with Zuko," Azula finally replies, which makes the impatient vampiress stop jingling the car keys.

"Why are you staying after school?" Mai asks, knowing this will be horrible.

"I'm going to join the cheerleading team." Azula shrugs. "I might as well."

Mai has no response to that. She cannot imagine why Azula would make that certifiably insane decision, but she does know that her semi-sister will be excellent at it thanks to her supernatural strength and dexterity. It will be a risk, but Mai does not care much about risks anymore.

"Have fun," Mai comments, before racing off to her car.

Azula slams her locker shut and goes to the gym.

* * *

"You are home late," Ozai says as he looks at his two children.

They have just walked into their house, where he is waiting for them. Zuko turns to look over his shoulder at Azula. He wants her to lie, but she decides to tell the truth.

"I am a cheerleader now. The tryouts took longer than I thought they would," Azula purrs, smiling softly at her father. He falls for the false sweetness his daughter offers, as always.

"That's not a hobby I ever expected you to take up," he says, cocking an eyebrow. He then walks into the kitchen. "But do it if you want."

Azula smirks at Zuko and scampers inside to eat.

* * *

On Friday night, the big game excites the school. Every clique is here, even the ones who condemn sports. It is a fun place to be, whether you like football or not.

Azula adjusts her borrowed uniform, displeased by it. It is _worn_ , and she always purchases brand new designer clothes straight from Caldera or Republic City. Not to mention how ill-fitting it happens to be.

All the same, she stands by Ty Lee.

They begin the routines and Azula keeps up by slowing herself down. It is _boring_ for a vampire to partake in. Azula does not even break out a sweat—she does not think her body _can_ in the first place.

The evening blurs. Azula's mind is on the party tonight, and how she promised Mai she would prove her disinterest in Ty Lee. She certainly is in a bad position when she must do a trick with the object of her infatuation.

When Azula touches her skin, she feels a heat through her, a blush in her cheeks. Ty Lee sways and hits the ground; it is the first time Azula has ever seen her do that. She looks up and collects herself, but her bright brown eyes are dull instead of sparkling.

It takes a moment for Azula to realize what she has done.

Even that touch is enough to drain her.

Azula does not know what to do, but it is too late to back out on her promise to Mai.

* * *

After the game, the girls sit around waiting for Zuko. They will be headed to the party after this, but Zuko is running late, which makes everything boring. Azula goes and sits at the top of the bleachers, in a meditative state. She still has yet to come to terms with the strength of her powers.

She did not know just one touch could do so much.

Below the bleachers on the damp green grass, "Did you ever try running away from home?" Ty Lee asks Mai, a small smile on her lips. She always is smiling, Mai decides, even though she thinks this must somehow be pleasant conversation to other people. "I did a few times. Different ways and different ages, but I always wanted to join the circus."

"What would your act be?" Mai asks, almost amused.

"Oh, you've seen me cheerleading. Absolutely acrobatics and I'm a really good contortionist." Ty Lee is on her hands in an instant, the most bizarre display Mai has seen in over a century of life. "Anyway, I think the first time is the funniest. I was too afraid to cross the street alone, so I never made it past the front yard."

"I only ran away once. I was sixteen and I skipped town with my boyfriend. I made it from Caldera to Gaoling." That is the whole and unaltered truth.

Ty Lee squirms, a bit uncomfortable. "You were dedicated."

"Yeah. You could say that," says Mai before looking up and seeing Zuko.

He is glistening from the shower and dressed very well by Zuko standards. The boys surrounding him do not seem to be his friends, but they are friendly with him. He picks up his pace to run to his sisters.

Zuko stands below the bleachers, smirking cockily at Mai.

"So you won a football game. All hail Prince Zuko," Mai sarcastically says as Ty Lee skitters away. She whispers, "You do look pretty sexy, though, I'll admit."

"Th-thanks. I mean, of course I do." He blushes. She does not hate that.

Mai leans forward and kisses him without thinking. They are in the shadows and the near-silence made it seem like they were alone.

But one person is watching. Ty Lee.

Her jaw drops and her eyes bulge, but she pulls herself together before Mai and Zuko see her. Ew, ew, ew, ew, ew. Ty Lee knew incest is a _thing_ , but she never thought she would _see it_.

She just kind of thinks that maybe that's how it is in their family, which is gross, but she holds it in because Azula is stepping down from the bleachers.

The setting sun frames her in a glorious silhouette. When she walks down, it is like a goddess descending from the heavens, and Ty Lee cannot look away.

Azula jumps down the last bench and becomes visible, a crisp image that Ty Lee studies.

And Azula asks with a sly smirk, "Are you ready for the party, neighbor girl?"

* * *

The party is _loud_. Sensitive vampire hearing makes it quite uncomfortable, and Mai hates the music on top of that. No one ever plays _good_ music at these events. She has been to many of them in order to pick up meals for her family. Occasionally she would stop for sex, leaving a corpse in her wake. It would be blamed on overdose, of all things.

Mai watches Azula this time. Her sister keeps stalling, pretending to drink and chatting to people. Azula _hates_ idle conversation, and so Mai knows it is all an act.

She grabs Azula's shoulder.

"You are going to go find Ty Lee now," Mai says, poking Azula's back. Her nails would hurt a human, but Azula barely registers the touch.

Azula turns around, huffily sighs, and then goes to find the girl she is planning on sleeping with tonight.

* * *

She runs into Ty Lee upstairs. Ty Lee stops talking to her friend Sokka—or _flirting_ with her friend Sokka—and turns her attention to Azula. She excitedly runs up to her, sloshing some of her drink on her hand. Ty Lee wipes it off on her cheerleading uniform and grins.

"I'm so happy to see you!" Ty Lee exclaims, hugging Azula tightly.

Azula jumps back, remembering how strong the sexually charged touch was earlier today. No, Azula is going to fuck Ty Lee tonight and she cannot be concerned about such things. The girl will be drained by the end of the night and Azula _knows it_.

"Would you care to go somewhere more private?" Azula purrs, taking Ty Lee by the hand.

They find an empty bedroom and slip inside. Maybe this will be easier than Azula thought.

Ty Lee keeps babbling about incredibly boring details of her life. Azula pretends to listen and tries not to psych herself out of doing this. Why would it matter? Azula would lose being able to look at Ty Lee daily, but there are plenty of pretty women in the world.

"I am going to just cut to the chase," Azula says, uncertain how to navigate the world of flirting. She leans forward and kisses Ty Lee.

The rush surging through her is immense. She is stealing the life force of the beautiful human. Ty Lee does not seem to notice, sinking into it. How could she not feel that she is about to pass out? Ty Lee's knees buckle and as Azula breaks the kiss, she collapses.

Azula feels a heated ache within her. She swallows, her mouth dry. She does not know if she wants to fuck Ty Lee or eat her, because both of those things sound tempting. Both of those things are possible.

Instead, Azula kneels and touches Ty Lee's neck, feeling for a pulse.

Ty Lee is alive, but deeply unconscious.

Azula stands up and flees the scene of the crime.

* * *

"I _am_ ruthless," spits Azula in the car. Mai shoots her a look of disbelief. "You know I am. You have seen what I do to humans for fun. The sex part is new to me, and I hated the feeling of being out of control. It was awful to know I had such raw cravings, and I left before I gave in to them."

That is all true. There is something else, however, that gave her pause. She ignores that and focuses on the more plausible reason; Azula needs to be in control of her thirst at all times.

Mai and Zuko both know that.

They believe that Azula bailed on the sex because of it.

But they also believe that Azula's infatuation with a human is still going strong.


	7. glacial

_**chapter seven: promise**_

* * *

Azula sits on the back porch of her house. The silence is eerie; when she first moved here the cricket-locusts simply would not shut up. When she lived in Ba Sing Se, the cars and people always filled the city streets with at the quietest a hum. Now, dead silence in the cold Kyoshi Island winter.

Mai steps outside and sits beside her, handing Azula a teacup. Azula accepts it but grimaces.

"I have no appetite," she says, staring down into the glistening blood. It could not be less appealing to her.

Mai shrugs and disclaims her involvement. "Your dad told me to give it to you."

"I wish he didn't _let_ us go to these parties," Azula says to the countryside, not even glancing at her semi-sister. "I wish we could sneak out like normal children."

"Your angst is getting very boring," Mai says, taking a sip from her own cup. "I don't know why you want to be human."

They sit in silence as Azula processes that. She does not want to accept the fact that she has been lusting after _normalcy_ not _sex_.

"Do you miss it?" Azula softly asks, finally looking at Mai instead of the trees, grass and sky.

Mai deflects, "Life before you wouldn't shut up about how hard it is to be a vampire?"

Azula scowls at her. "You know what I was asking."

"I do, and I don't want to answer it." Mai is the one who refuses to make eye contact now.

She does not want to talk about those years. They were very short compared to her new life, but she remembers them with surprising clarity. Despite the fact that she hates any reminders, she thinks she does miss it from time to time.

Not enough to complain and whine like the pretty, pretty princess beside her, but enough to not want to discuss it.

Azula asks, even though she already knows, "Does that mean yes?"

"I don't care," Mai flatly lies, not caring if Azula finds her credible or not. "I had a horrible life as a human, and didn't get a chance for many thrilling human experiences. I hated my life."

"You hate your life now."

"So what?" Mai considers just walking inside and leaving Azula to brood.

"Good point," Azula says and so Mai lingers for a few more moments.

"You had a boyfriend, didn't you? A serious enough one to run away with him," Azula states.

 _That_ is the one thing Mai wants to forget the most.

"Why are you even talking about him?" demands Mai, slipping into a state of emotion. "You don't know anything about him."

"No, I'm… I just want to ask… you had sex _as_ a human _with_ a human?" Azula inquires, which makes Mai sigh. This will be about her weird sexual issues that mostly revolve around the neighbor girl.

"This is going to be an awkward conversation, isn't it?" Mai inquires.

"I am asking because of my disturbing lack of willpower, and yes, it will be very awkward. I came so close to it with her—"

"You knocked her out, I know, which means you have feelings for her."

" _No_ , I just panicked after knocking her out. It wasn't the same as it was my first time."

"Because you have feelings for her."

" _No_ , I _promise_ you that I don't. It was different because I was thinking during it. I was thinking about how I could not control myself and I need to control everything and everyone."

Mai might believe her. She at least believes that Azula believes herself.

* * *

On Saturday morning, Ty Lee opens the door and sees Suki and Jin standing on the porch.

"FINALLY!" she exclaims, her heart fluttering into the flurry of tachycardia. She does not know why she feels even _more_ worried now that her friends are here. "Hurry upstairs. Come on!"

Suki and Jin exchange a glance before they race after Ty Lee up the stairs. Ty Lee kicks her studying sister out and slams the door shut.

"Is this about the party?" Suki asks. "We couldn't find you so we left. I'm really sorry but Jin said her mom would kill her and I'm not a big party person."

"I had to get a ride from Sokka because I passed out."

"You told us that. I'm really sorry." Jin hugs Ty Lee.

"No, I'm really not mad. I just wanted to tell you what happened before I passed out!"

"Mhm." Neither friend looks extremely enthused.

Ty Lee sets her hand over her heart and in a breathy voice says, "I almost had sex with Azula Kasai."

* * *

On Saturday morning, Ozai corners his daughter in the kitchen. "Mai told me about you and the neighbor girl."

"I hate her."

"The neighbor girl?"

" _Mai_. I hate her for telling anyone about that. I would much rather forget about it permanently. It isn't as if I care about Ty Lee, and I should never have tried to screw her," Azula says, thinking her lie seamless. She is very good at it.

But even her best woven dishonesties are transparent to Ozai.

"I can't take back how far you have let yourself go down this very dangerous path, but promise me you will not get involved with her any further. I can't have that."

Azula looks up at her father.

"I promise," she says.

She hopes she means it.

* * *

On Saturday morning, Katara confronts her brother.

"I haven't finished eating, Katara. We will take when I'm done eating this bacon… and steak… and most of the eggs…" He shovels all three of those into his mouth while Katara impatiently waits, tapping her foot on the linoleum floor.

"Done yet?" Katara asks after all the food is gone.

"Yes," replies Sokka.

"Good. Then you can answer my questions about last night. You took Ty Lee home because she passed out. Who was she last with?"

"I don't know why that matters, but she was last with that Kasai girl."

"Azula?"

"Whatever." Sokka knows her name, but he does not want to.

"Read this book," Katara says, setting the tome on vampires in front of her brother. He laughs.

"I don't read."

"At least just read the description about vampires, and promise to take me seriously."

"About vampires? Do you think Azula Kasai is a vampire, because that's kind of insane."

"No, it isn't. She fits the description, and so do her siblings."

Sokka flips open to the bookmarked page.

He cannot believe he is reading, and cannot believe he is reading about vampires as if they were real.

* * *

Suki asks, "Why would you _want_ to have sex with Azula Kasai."

"Because she's amazing and perfect in every single way. I think I'm going to marry her one day," replies Ty Lee. Suki and Jin continuing staring at her as if she has grown a third eye. "So, maybe marriage is rushing it, but I really think it was so exciting that we almost did."

"But you passed out halfway through?" Suki asks, which kills Ty Lee's cheery vibe.

"Yeah, but she wanted to have sex so it counts as an amazing thing," Ty Lee reassures herself and her two best friends. " _Such_ an amazing thing. I mean, her lips are really cold, but other than that, so perfect."

"Her hands are cold too," comments Suki, which makes Ty Lee's chest half-explode.

"How would you know?" Ty Lee jealously demands, her eyes flashing.

"Cheerleading," Suki replies with a trace of a smile. "I know you only look at her or the football players, but there's more to the team than just you."

"I know that," Ty Lee defensively snaps, crossing her arms and pouting. "I also know that we have a real chance. Everybody said she's just ignoring me or something, but she's not. She wants me."

Jin smiles and gives an affirmation, while Suki just sits down on Ty Lee's bed.

Suki says, "I don't know why you want her to want you, but congratulations, I guess."

Ty Lee beams.

* * *

At school on Monday, Azula leans against her locker and sees Ty Lee wave at her.

She knows she should not, but she waves back before making herself look busy. Ty Lee starts walking towards her, but Azula wishes she would come to her senses and not take another step. All that waits for her is a painful end to a sad excuse for a love affair.

Ty Lee does not develop sanity, because she stands in front of Azula, smiling.

Azula stares at her coldly.

Ty Lee's smile falters, but it does not fade.

"Do you want to walk to class with me?" Ty Lee asks, pressing her books to her chest, feeling like her heart is going to burst.

Azula glances over her shoulder at her siblings and shakes her head.

"No."

She walks away.

Why does she want to turn around and change her mind?

Mai is probably right.

But even if she is, Azula will keep her promise to her father.

* * *

The next day, Azula abandons Ty Lee in the hallway, Katara stands in the hallway with her brother. It is an unprecedented act of embarrassment, and so he wastes no time in rebutting what she has yet to say.

"No, since I believe in logic and reason and am not either five or insane, I _don't_ think the new kids are vampires," states Sokka, rolling his cobalt eyes. "I know I'm concerned about Ty Lee being around them because I think there's something weird about that family, but I really doubt they're vampires. Serial killers, maybe. Not vampires."

Katara glowers. He does not care, but he sees Ty Lee crying and heading towards the deserted hallway lined with lockers.

"You should talk to her," says Katara. She knows he sucks at being sensitive, but she also is rooting for him tearing Ty Lee's attention from a vampiress and putting it on him instead. He nods sharply and turns to follow his friend.

Ty Lee sits down, her back against the metal lockers, and sniffles. Sokka sits down beside her and they remain in silence for a few long moments. It is his free period; she has a bathroom pass looped around her finger.

"Why are you so upset?" Sokka inquires. He is not very good at this kind of thing, to tell the whole and honest truth.

Ty Lee tries to control her quiet sobbing, and at last manages.

"I don't know with her. I don't know what to think of her. What am I supposed to think of her?" Ty Lee whispers, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"I think she's cold and cruel and not interested in you," Sokka says, studying Ty Lee closely. It is somehow unclear to them both that he hates Azula because he has a crush on Ty Lee. "She seems vain and terrible, in my opinion, and you keep chasing her. I think she's playing with you."

Ty Lee does not want to agree with him. It hurts so much that she does wonder if he could be right. Azula does seem to be toying with her in many ways, but Ty Lee has seen this _hunger_ in her eyes that makes Ty Lee think she desires her back.

"She probably is, but I've never felt this way about somebody before," Ty Lee ekes out. He sets his strong hand on her arm and she manages to reel in her hysterics. She rests her head on his shoulder and he feels an electric shock in his veins. "There's something about her that just makes me feel like it's more than a crush."

"She's probably a vampire or something," Sokka remarks and Ty Lee giggles. "Hey, you can go to Kyoshi Day down on the pier with me. It'll be great."

"That sounds fun," Ty Lee says, not noticing he is asking her out. He does not know how to tell her that he is, so he just settles for an evening with a friend.

They sit there for an eternity, and he savors each second.

* * *

"Of _course_ I got the only A in his class in eight years. I am a genius, after all," purrs Azula as soon as she receives her First Semester marks from Mr. Jiggong.

"One day that head of yours will get so hot it will melt," Mai remarks, earning a glare from her sort-of-sister slash sort-of-daughter.

"Maybe," Azula replies in a mocking voice. Mai is unfazed by it. It is miraculous how used to someone you can get after a hundred years or so. "So, Kyoshi Day…"

"I have no clue why you think I care about a holiday," Mai says, picking up her backpack and starting off down the hallway. Azula follows her, then speeds up so that she can walk a single step in front. Mai rolls her eyes when Azula is not looking. "There's no reason I would ever care about _Kyoshi Day_ and I'm not a huge fan of _festival_ type things."

"It could be fun," says Azula. "An evening by the ocean, out on the colorful pier, decorating and dressing up."

"None of those things sound fun," Mai replies.

"Does _anything_ sound fun to you?" Azula asks.

"Good point," admits Mai. "I'll see you after school, while I wait, bored, for you and Zuko to finish practice."

Azula smirks and walks away.


	8. dollhouse

_**chapter eight: kissing siblings**_

* * *

At a long and particularly boring cheerleading practice, Azula goes out of her way to avoid touching Ty Lee. She must dedicate almost all of her attention to avoiding the slightest contact of their skin. It seems to hurt the human, but the vampiress is not going to risk knocking her out again. Not to mention the fact that Azula desperately needs to forget about her and move on with life.

She wishes, today, on Kyoshi Day, that her coven could move away from this island.

None of them are happy here.

* * *

After football practice, Mai slinks into the locker room after the boys are gone. Zuko texted her that he was waiting inside, and she could not help but pursue him. She was bored staring at the trophy cases in the halls outside of the gym anyway.

"You look sexy," Zuko says, winking at her.

She rolls her eyes. "Yeah, right," she sarcastically replies.

"I mean it. You always look sexy. I can't take my eyes off of you," Zuko says, wiggling his eyebrows.

She feigns gagging, but he keeps looking at her like that.

Mai is weak for it, she will admit. Zuko is not her _mate_ , but he is the guy she finds herself getting interested in for a few weeks every few years.

"Careful, Zuko," she mockingly warns as she walks up to him. He smells good compared to the rest of this gross locker room. The dead do not sweat, after all. "You're going to make your hand jealous."

He laughs and leans forward. Their lips lock. Their lips lock carelessly, but they are not as alone as they thought they were.

Jin and Suki simultaneously cover their mouths with their hands. Their first, mutual thought is that they have to find Ty Lee. So, they race as fast as they can away from the locker room and see their best friend sitting on the bleachers with her phone.

"Ty Lee! Ty Lee! Ty Lee!" both girls shout. The object of their screaming looks up from her phone. They both close in on her and sit on either side.

"What is it?" asks the cheery cheerleader.

"We saw—we saw—it's so _gross_ —we saw Zuko kissing Mai. Or maybe Mai kissing Zuko. Either way, it's the same thing," Jin says, her eyes huge and round. "I knew they were weird. Plus, I'm so sad. I wanted to date Zuko. He was flirting with me every day in math class, but if he's into his own sister then…"

"Maybe things are different in Caldera. Was it just a little kiss? I have family from the Fire Nation that always wants me to like kiss their cheek when we see each other," Ty Lee defensively says, setting her phone down on her lap. "My cousin was all like—when he saw my new glitter pink lipstick—I want some of that on my cheek, he was like, and I kissed his cheek and it was all just familial and platonic."

Jin purses her lips, still lamenting her loss of a potential boyfriend. Suki decides to be the brave one.

"It was sexual. Not even romantic; it was sexual. I bet they're making out right now," says Suki, patting Ty Lee's hand.

Ty Lee pulls away from her in one swift motion.

"You guys thinking Mai and Zuko were kissing doesn't have anything to do with Azula. I'm so sick of how everybody on this stupid island is so critical of the Kasai family." Ty Lee glares. It stretches her muscles uncomfortably; she never looks at people that way.

They sit and stare, waiting for Ty Lee to say anything else.

The Head Cheerleader just stands up and walks to go wait for her mom by the curb.

* * *

That evening, Mai draws on her dark eyeliner and plum lipstick, pretending to listen to Azula. She _was_ convinced by her sort-of-siblings to go to Kyoshi Day by the beach. The night is cold and so Mai cannot imagine it will be fun of any sort. She hates events like this.

"Are we ready?" Mai asks.

Azula spritzes one last blast of hairspray on her bangs.

"Yes," she purrs.

* * *

That evening, Ty Lee finishes the matte on her pink lipstick and the sparkle on her pink eyeshadow, gabbing to her disinterested sister. She cannot wait to go to Kyoshi Day by the beach, even though she does not want to go with her friends anymore. Ty Lee does not even know if they _are_ her friends anymore, which is heartbreaking but true.

She loves this event too much to miss it.

"Are we ready?" asks her elder sister, looking up from her phone for the first time all night.

Ty Lee finishes the last stroke of her blush.

"Yup!" she exclaims happily.

Mai is oblivious to the whispers about her.

Azula does not hear them and stops hearing Mai's conversation on the pier when she sees Ty Lee alone. That is a sight she is not used to. At first, she wonders if she should talk to the girl, but, then, she sees Sokka come up behind Ty Lee with a balloon and a stuffed animal.

"Is she on a date?" Azula does not mean to snarl. The usually concealed fangs in her mouth glint in the moonlight. "She _cannot_ be on a date."

"So what if she is? She's not dating you," Mai bluntly says, which nearly makes Azula punch her in the face. "If she wants to move on, that's better for everyone. It'll make keeping your promise to your father much easier."

"I want her to be with me or be with no one," Azula coldly replies, which just makes Mai sigh. "I simply will wait out the rest of her short life and live happily ever after alone."

"So, you want the girl you're into to live an entire, solitary life as a spinster just so you don't have to be jealous?" Mai flatly asks.

"Yes. Precisely," Azula replies in utter earnest.

"You're a terrible person."

"So are you."

They laugh.

* * *

Ty Lee escapes her date when she sees Azula sitting bored, halfheartedly eating cotton candy. Waving, Ty Lee runs up to her. Sokka is busy trying to win a rigged game, spending all of his money on it and making her _totally_ bored to tears.

"Hi," Ty Lee says, her eyes bright. "Are you here on your own?"

"Are you?" Azula does not mean to sound so biting and cruel, but she cannot take it back.

"Yeah!" Ty Lee replies enthusiastically.

"And that buff football playing boy?" Azula nods in Sokka's direction.

Ty Lee looks over her shoulder and sees he is still engrossed in a ring toss.

"He's just a friend," Ty Lee says, waving her hand and giggling.

Azula does not comment.

"I was about to find my sister and leave," Azula says, standing up.

Ty Lee places her hand over Azula's. She pulls back. "You're so cold. It's really cold out. I should get you some mittens. I saw some really cute ones in town the other day."

"Of course," Azula slickly replies. "Now, I ought to leave."

"I was about to go swimming," Ty Lee says. Now that stops Azula from finding Mai. "It's always so fun tonight to go out in the water during the fireworks. They're going to start so soon and Sokka just wouldn't come with me. Do you want to see it?"

Azula grimaces.

"Maybe not," she says, as much as it pains her.

"Oh, please? It only happens once a year," Ty Lee begs.

Azula cannot deny her. She takes Ty Lee by the hand and lets the cheery girl guide her down beneath the boardwalk.

They walk out, over the pebbles, and Ty Lee strips down to her bra and underwear. She shivers before she is even wet.

Azula hates this kind of beach, she thinks as she slides off her shoes. Her favorites are the ones with black sand from back in the Fire Nation, or the heat of Ember Island. She does not mind the muddy kind on the lakes of the Earth Kingdom. Even the snow and ice of the poles are preferable to tiny, painful, dirty rocks.

She undresses and Ty Lee stares at her. The lights from the boardwalk shine down, combined with the moonlight. Azula's unnaturally pale skin and bogglingly perfect body draw Ty Lee's eyes.

Azula walks to the water and wades inside, swimming once she is deep enough in.

"Wow! You're good with the cold!" Ty Lee exclaims, laughing as she jumps in and out over and over again. She walks into the waves and overcomes the cold with her brain power.

She swims out and sets her feet on Azula's knees before the vampiress can stop her.

Ty Lee kisses Azula before she can say a word. Her lightheadedness does not matter as the fireworks burst and scream, lighting the sky in stunning colors.

Azula kisses Ty Lee back, frantically, passionately.

She cannot stop herself until Ty Lee faints in her arms.

* * *

Ty Lee struggles to open her eyes when she comes to. Her back is on a sofa and she smells the crisp perfume of the Kasai Family all around her.

" _That_ ," growls Ozai, "is the human I said you were not to bring home with you. I'm not covering up her disappearance, and I'm not allowing you to continue this sick relationship."

"I don't know what to do. She was drowning and I was kissing her—not in that order—and she passed out and I didn't know what to do. I took her here because I couldn't take her to a _hospital_ ," stammers Azula. She sounds like she has been crying, which startles Ty Lee. "I don't know anything about this. I didn't know if they would find us out if they found her."

"She's breathing," says Ozai, "and she isn't screaming, so I doubt she's _changing_."

"I didn't have sex with her. We were just swimming and kissing. I didn't…" Azula _does_ begin to cry, which Ty Lee never thought she would hear. "What do we do? Am I Zuko? Have I become Zuko?"

"No, princess, no," he says. Ty Lee tries to make her breathing look natural and keeps her eyes shut. "We'll figure this out. Bring her up to your bed—no, bring her up to the guest bed in order to stop any temptation—and we'll come up with a story about her passing out from the cold and you rescuing her."

"She will want to know why we did not take her to a hospital or her family."

"She's not very smart, from what I've seen," Ozai growls. Ty Lee is not too offended. "Then, in the morning, when you get rid of her, you will stay away from humans and behave like you have for the past several centuries."

Ty Lee does not understand what she is hearing.

"Why do I want her so much?"

"Because you kickstarted your adolescent sexuality after a few lifetimes of being a good virgin, all to spite Mai and Zuko. I hope you're proud."

"I'm not," Azula says in a whisper. She sounds _vulnerable_. Ty Lee wonders if she is dreaming. "I promise I'll stay away from humans, especially her. Let's just get through tonight."

"Good. You will stay down here."

"Mai will watch me?"

"You will watch yourself like a responsible woman, because Mai is waiting in my bed."

"That's remarkably selfish."

"So is pursuing a girl you'll kill or turn if you get too close to, pursuing a girl who can get our family into trouble all over again. Now, please, behave yourself and sleep on the couch. I'll take her upstairs and tuck her in or whatever these little humans like."

"Thank you, father," whispers Azula.

Ty Lee's heart begins to race.


	9. late

_**chapter nine: secrets and lies**_

* * *

Ty Lee regains consciousness on Azula's sofa.

She opens her eyes this time and looks around the country style home. It feels so cold and unlived in. After drinking in those surroundings, she notices that Hhr crush sits on the nearby armchair, flipping through television channels. Ty Lee did not know people still do that. Does she not know how to hit _guide_? Is she a thousand years old?

Ty Lee tries to ask what happened, but just manages to say, "Guuruhh?"

Azula straightens her posture with a supernatural swiftness, her motions angular yet smooth at the same time. It is intoxicating to Ty Lee. She simply looks at Ty Lee, wordless, as if she can wish the girl away. But she cannot. Ty Lee is real, tangible and now Azula must offer one of the several lies she has come up with.

But she has something else in mind. "I have been trying to think of the right thing to tell you, but I have decided to do the disgusting and unthinkable," says Azula. She breathes deeply, pained by the very thought of her awful decision. "Tell you the truth."

"That's not so unthinkable and disgusting," Ty Lee cheerily replies, relieved she managed words this time. "I do it all the time!"

"You are so cheery. Why am I attracted to you? You are _so cheery_ ," Azula mutters, perhaps forgetting that Ty Lee can hear her. Or perhaps not. Azula focuses her glowing gold gaze on Ty Lee again. "What do you remember from tonight?"

"The festival, us kissing… then I black out and wake up…" Ty Lee clears her throat. She guesses she might as well be honest too. "I woke up a while ago, but I closed my eyes and pretended to still be unconscious because I was kinda scared. You were talking to your dad."

"How much did you hear?" Azula cautiously inquires, more concerned about herself crying than anything else. Letting humans in never goes well. It has never gone well for any vampire and Azula wonders why she thought she would be any different.

"A lot. It was confusing." Ty Lee sits up. Her head spins for a second, then her vision regains its clarity.

Azula takes Ty Lee by the hand. Her skin is as cold as ever.

"Let me show you what I honestly cannot explain in words," Azula says, leading Ty Lee to the back porch.

They sneak out through the creaky back door and Azula sets her sights on the still shining lights down by the water. They appear eerie when partially obscured by the woods. Azula quickly decides it is her best bet. Thick crowd, people from other towns, plenty of distractions; if she is going to do this anywhere, this is the best target Kyoshi Island has.

Azula squeezes Ty Lee's hand and takes off.

* * *

Ty Lee miraculously does not say a word. She must admit that Azula has this predatory look in her glowing golden eyes and Ty Lee thinks she might have stumbled onto a secret she would be better off not knowing.

Azula stops walking when they are in the center of the crowd. The overwhelming noise makes it possible to talk without being overheard and the timing is perfect.

"This isn't the way I—my family—we normally do things. It is more effective and practical to do this the way we usually do, but this is much more fun. No, fun is not the right word," Azula says, locking on to her target and starting to stalk him. He is on his way to the parking lot. " _Exhilarating_ is the right word."

They always capture prey and bleed them for a few days. Older, wiser vampires hunt that way, but the raw thrill of how their species was intended to eat is an incredible rush.

Azula is the elite. Azula is at the top of the food chain. Azula is feeling the rush.

Ty Lee's heart races; she wonders why she cannot feel Azula's pulse the way she can her own. It only intensifies while they follow the young man. They are under the cover of darkness now. Azula releases Ty Lee's hand for a flash of a second and pins the man to his car with arms much too strong for her small frame.

When Ty Lee expects him to throw her on the frosty ground or shove her away, she watches a very eerie rush of romantic chemistry. Just a moment's worth. The jealousy quickly becomes revulsion when Azula's teeth—fangs—sink into his neck.

Ty Lee covers her mouth with her hand.

* * *

"Vampire," whispers Ty Lee, her first words since she and Azula snuck back into the Kasai home. They have been inside of the unadorned kitchen for a few minutes now, standing in utter silence. "Vampire, right? Are you a vampire? Are vampires real? Are you a vampire?"

Ty Lee takes a risk and looks at her. At first, she thinks she does not look any different, but now she sees it appears as if Azula has put on the _perfect_ liquid highlighter.

"The answer to both of those questions is yes," Azula says. "Now do I have to kill you or can you keep a secret?"

Ty Lee shrugs, trying to embrace this news. Things could be worse. Azula could be straight. "Nobody would believe me even if I didn't keep your secret."

"Good," purrs the vampiress.

An uninvited voice interrupts them: Mai. "What's happening right now?"

Azula takes a sharp breath and pivots to face her coven member. "I told her."

Mai cannot keep up her usual flat tone when she hisses, "You _told_ her? Even Zuko isn't that stupid."

"No one will find out. I _promise_ ," says Azula, glaring. "Let's just let her in."

Mai does not know what to make of it. "Let a human into a vampire coven?"

"No. Not that kind. I mean let her in on everything. If she tries anything, we just kill her. It isn't as if that would be hard."

"There's a first time for everything." Mai shrugs. "At least she's not a freed prisoner like what Zuko did. She's a nosy neighbor who now knows a devastating secret that could destroy our already-on-the-lam family."

Azula points at the couch. Ty Lee is too dumbstruck to notice her neighbors mean for her to sit down until Azula clears her throat. She quickly does and the two girls who appear to be her age stand in front of her, looming like judges of a weak human's fate. Maybe they are exactly that.

"I was born in Caldera, like I said," Azula states. Mai sits down; this will be boring. "But I was born in Caldera almost five centuries ago. I wasn't turned into a vampire. I was born one. My father is the fourth vampire there ever was. He waited a long, long while to have my brother and me. Mai is much younger. She was born in Omashu around ninety years ago, and she was turned traditionally."

Ty Lee makes a small noise. Azula stops speaking to allow her guest to talk.

"Do you like being a vampire?" inquires Ty Lee, morbidly curious.

Azula asks, "I don't know being anything other than the elite race. What do you think, Mai?"

"I think elite is the right word for it. We're impossibly sexy, impossibly rich, impossibly knowledgeable and impossibly powerful," Mai replies, somehow disinterested but engaged.

"What if I want to be a vampire?" Ty Lee whispers, leaning forward even further. Azula noticeably looks away from her chest as her shirt slips down.

"You can't decide that so quickly," says Azula. "I imagine, and, secondly, it is much more likely you will die than become one of us. Which brings me to the most important part of this story. You almost drowned because I kissed you. Our touch is toxic. We drain blood, drain life, drain things. It doesn't have to be with teeth or syringes."

"Your touch is…?" Ty Lee asks.

Azula explains, "Seduction is an involuntary reaction of our kind like yawning or whatever the best human equivalent is. Even when it is out of genuine romantic interest and not the next meal. So, the charm turns up against your will and then you're killing the person you're seducing. It makes relationships a bit complicated."

Ty Lee smiles, her eyes lighting up like a kid in a candy shop. "You want to seduce me? That's so sweet."

Azula would blush if she had warm blood. "I suppose I do."

"Do you want to go on a date sometime?" Ty Lee asks eagerly.

Mai scoffs; Azula is just as confused. "How on Earth did we go from me killing someone in front of you and saying that you could die if we held hands for too long to asking me out?"

Ty Lee shrugs, turning her palms up. "Iono."

"Yes. I would like to go on a date sometime," Azula replies.

Ty Lee could not be happier.

* * *

After Ty Lee leaves, Azula turns to Mai with fire in her cold eyes. "We are _not_ telling my father about this. Understood?"

"I wasn't planning on it. To be honest, I really don't care what happens." Mai opens the fridge and grabs the opaque pitcher. "If we all get murdered for telling humans about our existence, well, I've lived a long, full undeath. She really doesn't come off as the kind of girl who keeps secrets."

"Good for you." Azula sits down at the kitchen table and runs her fingertips over the weathered wood. The glossy finish makes even the imperfections of age smooth. "I guess I'm going on a date with her. This is a terrible idea."

"Yes. It is." Mai reaches into the cabinets and grabs a chipped wine glass.

"You are _supposed_ to reassure me," Azula growls. "There is an unspoken social contact that means you are supposed to tell me that it is actually a good idea."

"Well, do you think it's a good idea?"

"No."

"Then why should I?"

"Shut up." Azula ceases the motion of her fingers. "She is the first person I have thought of this way and I cannot be expected to make flawless decisions at all times."

"Can I have that in writing?"

Azula stalks off to her bedroom.

* * *

Ty Lee stands, feeding her fish pellet by pellet, making sure he eats. Her little buddy Swimmy is blind and so giving him his food requires time and patience. She always feels bad for him and obligated to make sure he has the best little fishy life ever. He has fake bamboo and a little castle to go hide in.

She snuck in the house a few minutes ago. Still reeling from the vampire news, she needs something stable like Swimmy to calm her down.

"Can you turn his tank lamp off?" demands her sister from the other side of the room. "It keeps me up."

"Get a sleep mask then!" Ty Lee yips.

Her sister throws a blue pillow at the wall. "He's _blind_! He doesn't need a lamp!"

Ty Lee clenches her fists, her arms stiff at her sides. "It keeps him warm! He's from Ember Island and so he needs to be _warm_!" Ty Lee snaps and snarls as she feeds him the last pellet and flops down on her bed.

Her sister's angry demeanor changes instantly. "You came in late. Or should I say early? You were out with Sokka weren't you?"

"No. I was out with…" Ty Lee chokes. She should probably cover for Azula. There was a murder at the festival, after all. "Yup. I was out with Sokka."

 _Note to self, get Sokka in on alibi._

"Did you guys have sex?"

"Yes. So much sex. All the sex," Ty Lee stammers. The alibi just got more complicated.

"Oooo. I knew it," her sister whispers. "You're good together."

"We're not together," Ty Lee says, sitting down on her slender pink bed. "It was a one time thing. You know those one time things? I do those a lot."

Her sister snickers and burrows back under her blankets.

Ty Lee pulls out her phone to text Sokka: _If anyone asks last night we were together all night and then had sex._

She lies down and falls asleep before she can check for his reply.

* * *

In the morning, Zuko finds Mai curled on the couch watching television.

He shouts at her, "People saw you kiss me! We're supposed to be siblings!"

Mai just rolls her eyes.

"People already think our family is weird and creepy. We'll survive the gossip." She sighs and curls back up on the couch. "They could be gossiping about us being murderers or vampires, so I'd say kissing siblings is best case scenario."

"Best case scenario is no one talking bad about us at all!"

"That isn't going to happen." Mai stretches out, uncomfortable either way. "We sweep into towns as pale new kids with mysterious pasts. You're all brooding and sexy but never get a girlfriend and Azula is terrifying and I'm the most normal person here. I could pass as goth, at least."

Zuko begins to yell again, but his father walks downstairs.

He hisses under his breath, "We're continuing this conversation later."

Mai shakes her head and closes her eyes.


	10. promise

_**chapter ten: a blind fish**_

* * *

The next day, Azula walks to Ty Lee's house. Spending so much time out in broad daylight makes her feel sick to her stomach but she holds herself together. She knocks on the door and, thankfully, Ty Lee is the one who answers.

"Hi," Ty Lee chirps, hugging Azula tightly. The vampiress pulls away as quickly as she can. "Do you want to meet my fish?"

"I…" Azula's eyelids flutter, but she quickly regains her composure. "Sure."

"He's blind, so he needs extra love," Ty Lee says, stepping into her house and guiding Azula up the stairs. "But even though he has trouble seeing, he's the best fish in the Universe. I dare you to find a better one."

"I have no plans of trying to prove you wrong about…?"

"Swimmy," Ty Lee interjects, batting her eyelashes. She seems enthusiastic about an animal with a lifespan that is a microsecond in Azula's mind.

But playing nice, Azula says smoothly, "I have no plans of trying to prove you wrong about Swimmy."

In response, Ty Lee grins from ear to ear. When Azula looks at her, she envies the innocence of mankind like she never has before in her life.

"You'll love him," Ty Lee says, snatching up Azula's ice cold hand.

She holds it in hers and feels the delightful chill that sends jolts of lightning up her arm. It only takes a few steps for her to start feeling faint and she clings to Azula tighter to keep standing. The floor starts to spin and Ty Lee's vision blurs. Azula releases her and Ty Lee sits down on her bedroom floor, catching her breath.

"You probably should not hold my hand."

"Why?" Ty Lee asks. "Is that what love feels like?"

"I do not love you. Vampires do not love humans."

"They do in the romance books."

"Those are fiction. Vampires _cannot_ love humans because it drains their life force away. That, to me, is a perfect example of why our species were not designed to be compatible."

"So, if we hold hands or kiss… it could kill me?"

"Yes," Azula says, leaving out the part about some humans being strong enough to turn. Ty Lee, romantic and silly as she is, would probably think she was destined to become a vampire.

"I guess sex is out of the question."

"That too," Azula says. "We have an attraction but we are different races. Dogs and cats do not breed, Ty Lee."

"But you look human."

Azula walks closer to Ty Lee. "But I am not. Still, I see no reason why we should be reluctant to spend time together. I look forward to getting to know Swimmy on a deeper level."

Ty Lee smiles at Azula and cheerily accepts her fate.

Again, Azula marvels for the first time at human resilience.

She always saw them as so weak and pathetic.

* * *

"Did you sleep with her?" Mai asks when Azula gets home.

Azula sighs. "Of course not. I met her fish. He's blind. I didn't know fish could be blind."

"They can if you take their eyes out," Mai says.

Azula demands, "Why would you do that?"

Mai shrugs and answers, "If you want to make them blind."

Zuko, disgusted, declares, "That's horrible."

"Well, her fish is blind and she loves the fish a lot. I spent a lot of time bonding with her pet fish and explained absolutely nothing I went over there to explain," states Azula.

Zuko asks, missing the point entirely, "Was it really gross to look at the gaps where his eyes used to be?"

Azula groans. "He had eyes. They just don't work."

Ozai interrupts and his coven snaps to attention. "Is the love of that whore worth potentially losing everything?"

Azula looks up at him and challenges his authority like she never has in her life.

"If you had ever experienced love, you would not have to ask."

"I have a mate."

"Maybe Ty Lee is mine." Azula covers her mouth but it is too late. It is not that she wants to hide that nagging thought from her father; she wants to hide it from herself.

"A mate isn't love," Mai says, of all people. " _Mates_ are a purely biological attraction _only_ experienced by vampires. Love is a human emotion and I doubt Azula feels it. She just craves it from neighbor girl."

Azula scoffs and asks, "Why would I crave it?"

"Because you have an ego the size of Ba Sing Se. It feels good to have someone be willing to die just to kiss you," Mai says.

Ozai's eyes bore into Azula's. "It doesn't require love or mating to accidentally create a vampire. I expect you to use discretion so we do not repeat the Zuko incident."

"I am not going to unleash a newborn on a major city, father. I can remain chaste around her because I have self-control, unlike my brother," Azula purrs.

Ozai stares her down until he decides that he believes her.

* * *

At school, in the early morning, Ty Lee shivers beneath her pink parka as she sits on the bike rack with Jin and Suki. They keep asking her about Sokka; word travels fast.

"He's very handsome," Ty Lee chirps when they ask for an explanation.

"You say that about everyone," Jin says, laughing. "Give us better details."

"I don't need another reason. He's been my friend for my whole life and I guess I always wanted him," Ty Lee says, surprised at how easily the lies spill from her lips. "Oh! Here he comes! Bye!"

Ty Lee scampers off to catch Sokka before anyone else does. They _must_ make this work.

"You were screwing somebody else, weren't you?" Sokka asks, leaning against his beat up blue truck. Ty Lee frowns and stares at her pink pumps. "It's fine, though. The rumor of me sleeping with the hottest girl at school doesn't hurt my reputation, and I'm always glad to help you."

"I was… doing something bad. I needed an alibi and you were the first thing I thought of," Ty Lee says, squeezing his rough, calloused hand. "We could pretend to be dating, or we could pretend it was a one night stand. Whatever you like."

Sokka stares at her. He keeps his face strong, but she can see the humanity inside of him when he hears her words.

"Well, I _would_ like to kiss you in front of everyone," Sokka says. He leans in and takes it, which gives Ty Lee a buzz throughout her body. She closes her eyes and embraces him, prolonging it until she hears a female voice clear her throat.

"Are you two an item now?" asks Azula Kasai. Sokka glares at her, wolflike in expression. "How cute. I should snap some pictures for yearbook. You might be prom King and Queen."

"Stay away from her, Kasai," snarls Sokka, grabbing Ty Lee by the waist. "She's taken now."

Ty Lee blushes. "Uh, Azula is kinda part of why I need the alibi. She knows we weren't…"

Sokka breathes deeply to hide his embarrassment. Astute and attuned like the predator she is, Azula notices, but gives no indication that she does. He can get away with it, in her eyes.

"You two make a cute fake couple," Azula purrs mockingly, stepping back to 'admire' them both further. "I think you should flaunt it for a couple of days. My father does not let me date anyway. Sokka, my dear, you would be doing us such a favor."

Sokka's nostrils flare and Ty Lee notices how his canines peek out from his lips. This is pretty much the sexiest and most exciting thing that has ever happened to her. Two _beautiful_ people might tear each other apart in a school parking lot because they crave her so desperately.

Mai saves the day by tonelessly calling from the sidewalk, "Azula, hurry up!"

"It's your lucky day, Kasai," growls Sokka.

"I could say the same to you," Azula purrs, uncurling her fingers in an eerie, inhuman fashion. She winks at them both before she skitters after her sort-of-sister.

Ty Lee leans against Sokka's muscles.

It is an _amazing_ day so far.

* * *

Even things that go bump in the night need protection.

They need laws, a government, a watchful force of powerful vampires who make sure nothing goes wrong and none of their kind get hurt.

And so goes the story of why the Kasai Coven is stuck on the run. They broke the laws that vampires must abide by; they killed their own kind. Afterwards, they decided to evade being put to death for the act of treason by vanishing into thin air.

They have been almost caught more than once, but always slipped away.

And now, Azula endangers them the way Zuko did last time; she fell for a human.

At the moment, she sits in a diner with the human she cannot deny her attraction to. They study the flashcards Azula made for their English class. This year, they study _Dracula_ as part of their monsters-in-literature unit. It amuses the vampiress and consistently makes the human giggle.

"How do you pass your classes?" Azula asks as Ty Lee fails yet again.

"I just do," Ty Lee whines. "With Ds. Those are good enough!"

"Not good enough for college," purrs Azula.

"I'm pretty; I don't have to go to college. I'll just get married." She bats her eyelashes. "Does that make you jealous?"

"A little," Azula says, smirking lightly. "Now focus on the flashcards. This place is disgusting and I would like to leave soon."

Azula hates diners, but this town only has three restaurants. None of them are flashy and Azula misses the city she last lived in. There were more vampires there and more options.

Unfortunately, Kyoshi Island is the worst place she has ever lived.

* * *

On the other side of town, "Hi, Zuko," Katara says, coming up to him after football practice.

His cold skin still is damp from the showers. He does not sweat, but he does not want to draw attention to himself either. Especially with the incest rumors flying. He supposes that is what this girl in blue is about to ask. Everyone seems to be talking about him and Mai.

"What do you want?" he growls angrily.

"I just wanted to offer going for a hike. You don't ever look too tired after practice," Katara says, smiling at him. She never has given him that expression and he cannot help but be suspicious. "It's a beautiful day and I know this cove that people sneak off to sometimes. It's supposed to be very dangerous, and you look like the type who likes danger."

Zuko chuckles and closely examines the strange girl who always wears blue. "You're more daring than I thought. I took you as the average goody-two-shoes."

"Let's go," Katara states, nodding towards the parking lot.

If she were not so hot, Zuko would turn her down, but he decides to give her a shot. He probably cannot sleep with her, but they could fool around without him killing her by mistake.

They head out towards the cliffs overlooking the ocean.

* * *

Across town, Azula continues scowling about the tacky diner. Ty Lee senses it as Azula astutely watches her nervous breathing, the heave of her chest.

"I can take you somewhere _fun_ ," says Azula. "It's a long drive but worth it. It's a club for my kind, but I think I can get you in."

"To get eaten," whispers Ty Lee.

"No. I introduce you as my own claim, which is a lie, I promise. No one will steal my meal," Azula purrs. She pulls out her wallet and flashes a fake driver's license. "And don't worry about me driving you to the city; I have a century of practice."

Ty Lee grins from ear to ear. She knows she might be walking into a deadly trap, but it is worth it. It is _so_ worth it.

Azula stands up, leaves cash on the table, and takes Ty Lee with her. They take the long bike ride back home and Azula takes her father's beloved car. Ty Lee buckles her seatbelt. She cannot stop smiling. Azula starts driving.

"We'll be there by nightfall. Until then, the radio?" Azula flips it on without an answer.

Ty Lee loves that about her. The _control_ Azula has is so sexy.

* * *

Zuko steps out in to the brisk air by the cliffs and watches Katara start to hike through the woods. He follows her, startled by the lack of conversation.

"Most girls talk more than you," Zuko says, laughing.

"That's sexist and you should shut up if you want me to show you the cove," Katara snaps, leaping over a stray root. Zuko narrowly avoids tripping over it. Thank Agni for vampire reflexes. "It's just a walk away. Not too far away."

Zuko follows her, every step regretting agreeing to this. Even she is not hot enough to be worth this miserable afternoon.

Then, suddenly, the boredom ends when Katara slips and screams. She plummets into gap in the rocks that she did not notice. Zuko jumps down after her at preternatural speed, but narrowly misses her. She splashes down into the water and he follows.

"No!" shouts Katara. He did not know she could yell like that. "No! Don't come down here!"

Zuko thuds and splashes in the knee deep water. "A little too late. I was already falling."

Katara backs towards the rocky wall. Zuko does not follow her; he is slightly smarter than that. He does not want to mess with a human when they already are at such risk. Last time was a horrible, horrible mistake.

"I wanted to change my mind but we… I… we need to have a conversation. I know what you are," Katara whispers, as she conceals herself in the darkness. "I brought you here to tell you that."

Zuko blanches. If the vampire could be any paler, he is.

"Say it," orders Zuko, because he cannot. Despite being on the run, he does not need to break any more rules by revealing his secret.

"You're a vampire," Katara says.

"That's ridiculous. Do you really believe that kind of thing?"

"Yes. My father was a monster expert and so is my Gran-Gran. Our tribe tells stories about people like you, and about people who can turn into wolves… and about what I am. I'm not human either, Zuko. So your secret is safe with me."

"You're not…" Zuko laughs. "You're a loony. You're not a vampire; I know my own kind."

"No; I'm not a vampire." Katara slowly walks towards him, "but things on Kyoshi Island are never what they seem. Please follow me."

"I'm not following a crazy person into a damned cave."

"I want to show you more," Katara says, diving down deep.

Zuko watches her splash and her shadow delve deep into the water as she swims beneath the tunnel. He sighs and follows her, not needing to breathe and so finding swimming very easy. He surfaces and sees her in the next room.

She swims towards him and he backs away from her, kicking towards the wall. But Katara pulls at the water and it twists beneath him, pulling him forward. He almost screams but contains himself as she grabs onto his muscular, cold arms.

He gets a good look at her once the moon strikes the water.

"It's only when the moon is full," says Katara. "And I go in water."

"Midnight swims, huh? You…" Zuko trails off, forgetting what he was intending to say, because he sees the…

The tail. _Her_ tail.

Katara is not a lunatic. She is not a human either.

And Zuko has _no idea_ what to do.

* * *

Ty Lee is breathless as she looks at the abandoned building in a sketchy area of a nearby city. Azula gets out of the car and then opens Ty Lee's door for her.

"Let's go. I give you _Bump in the Night_ ; the vampire club," Azula says, starting her walk towards the door. Ty Lee follows, anxiety swelling in the pit of her stomach.

They reach the bouncer and Ty Lee sees the flash of his fangs in the lamplight. She freezes up, horrified by the terrible decision she made. The bouncer looks at Azula and gives a smile, but then he sniffs the air and turns to Ty Lee. Her heart starts to beat uncontrollably.

"What's she? A sacrifice for a snack inside?" He smirks and Ty Lee shivers.

"She is a pet. _My_ pet and therefore no one's snack but mine," Azula purrs. "I find her very attractive and am saving her death for a while."

He laughs, but it is usual for vampires to play with their food before they eat it. "A weak one, though. Even your seduction seems to work impressively on her."

Ty Lee holds back an angry grimace. She cannot give away her cover, however, she is _not_ under Azula's seduction; she is just a girl in love. Unless… maybe she is! Maybe Azula totally mind controlled her and she is not really in love with the vampire.

No, no. Ty Lee loved her from the moment she saw her; it has nothing to do with seduction.

"Let us go inside, my sweet little human," Azula says, extending a hand and guiding Ty Lee into the abandoned building.

Ty Lee's jaw drops when she walks inside and sees the party. The vampires dance, the humans stand in cages as decorations or maybe the main course. Ty Lee clings tightly to Azula and her marble skin while the house music overwhelms her.

"This place is amazing!" Ty Lee shouts excitedly, shaking Azula's arm.

"Oh, I know," says the vampiress, smirking at Ty Lee and walking deeper into the crowd.

"Will you dance with me?" begs Ty Lee, eyes wide and sparkling with hope.

Azula shakes her head. "I do not dance. I had lessons in formal dancing when I was a princess, but that was centuries ago."

"You were a princess?" asks Ty Lee, stunned.

"Yes. But that was another life, to tell the truth," Azula says, trying not to remember the glorious parties in the golden ballrooms back in Caldera. "And I never learned any dancing suitable for this kind of music."

Ty Lee sways to the vicious beat. Azula tries not to watch the motion of her hips but cannot control herself well enough to hold back. Ty Lee takes Azula by the wrist and slips closer to her. She breathes; Azula does not bother pretending now that is among her own kind.

"I could teach you," Ty Lee offers, smiling at Azula. "You're my princess! I would do anything for you, you know?"

"Of course I do. Everyone does. My powerful father, any human I want to charm," Azula says, grabbing Ty Lee by the waist and starting to spin. It does not match the music but she does not care much. "I always get what I want."

"Do you want me?" Ty Lee leans closer.

Azula pushes her away. "Yes, but I want to avoid killing you more than I want to have you. I _do_ have some self-restraint."

"Only some?" Ty Lee asks. Then she looks afraid. "I didn't mean to tease you. I don't want to make you angry or anything."

"I will allow it, just this once," Azula purrs, avoiding holding Ty Lee. She does not want to deal with a passed out human. "We should go sit down or something."

They walk to the edge of the club and steal a booth no one currently uses. The two young women sit and stare at each other in silence—of course, any words would be drowned out by the loud, pulsing music—and Ty Lee sees the pure beauty that a vampiress hold. It is incredible.

Ty Lee sits in _Bump in the Night_ , a rave of vampires, across from the most captivating person she has ever known. Tonight could not be more perfect.

"I'm gonna fail that test tomorrow!" Ty Lee exclaims, shaking her head with her lips slightly parted, open.

"Yes. You are," Azula replies, drumming her fingers on the table.

Ty Lee's eyes widen when the music drums out so loudly that it could break glass and blood begins to rain from the sky.

She is drenched in it as Azula takes her back to the dance floor and they spin around, Azula keeping her hands on Ty Lee's bloody clothes to avoid contact with her skin.

Ty Lee kisses her then quickly pulls away. She felt it drain her life force, but it was worth it.

Azula smirks.

They will spend the night here in this bubble, isolated from the real world.


	11. seven days

**AN:** This chapter contains the Tyzula Week Prompts. Also: I got a lot of interest after revealing the Katara mermaid subplot, which, honestly is meant to fuel a gradual addition to the main plot involving Azula and Ty Lee, but I'm going to make her a bigger character because of the interest you awesome readers showed in her. Plus some extra Zuko comes with that package, and who doesn't love extra Zuko?

* * *

 ** _chapter eleven: seven days_**

* * *

 **GOLDEN**

Ty Lee sits in Azula's bedroom after school on Monday.

"Why are your eyes gold?" Ty Lee asks Azula. She has been gazing at them for ages.

"Because I am a vampire. Why else?"

"I dunno. I saw red eyes and black eyes and yellow ones at that club. But yours are gold and your dad and Mai and Zuko," Ty Lee says, tilting her head curiously.

Azula considers her options and then decides to explain. "Well, eye color involves family. Mai was turned and took on our eye color. Previously, I think they were amber but don't quote me on that. My brother and I were born and took on that same iris pigment. Other vampires come from other families. Gold is rarer since we are technically royals."

Ty Lee's jaw drops when she excitedly asks, "You're a vampire princess?"

"I _was_ a vampire princess. My father broke sacred laws and I no longer have that title."

Ty Lee asks, "Okay, other question, why is a former vampire princess going to high school? Also, how many times have you gone to high school?"

Azula answers, "I am going to high school for social interaction, which is severely lacking in the social circles of immortal creatures of the night."

"Oh," chirps Ty Lee, unfazed by any of it. That startles Azula, but she does not show it. "You're really amazing. _Really_ amazing… princess."

"Princess?" Azula pounces onto the bed. Ty Lee's eyes widen from shock and awe. She loves how gracefully and lightning fast her vampiress moves. "I like that."

Ty Lee wants to kiss Azula; Azula wants to kiss Ty Lee. But the vampire princess knows she has no self-control yet and she could cause enough damage to, not only kill the first person she has had a genuine attraction towards, but also force her family to move again.

Despite knowing that, Ty Lee's face falls. "I really like you."

"I know," replies Azula, lips twitching.

"Azula!" shouts the gravelly, commanding voice of a former vampire _king_.

The first instinct of the vampire is to shove Ty Lee under her bed. Yet, she holds on and lets her father walk up the stairs with his thunderous, confident footsteps. The man with golden eyes examines the girls.

"Hi, Mr. Kasai," says Ty Lee, waving and batting her eyelashes.

"Oh," remarks Ozai when he sees Ty Lee.

Nearly choking, "The human is here," Azula says, which is _not_ how she wanted to come out as a humanphile to her father. Is she a humanphile because she loves one? Just one!

Ozai's eyes light fire. "By that you mean?"

"She knows what we are," Azula chokes. Ty Lee has never seen her so nervous. Or nervous at all, for that matter, and, therefore, the human knows this is _bad_.

"Why?"

"Because I told her. It was necessary."

"How was that necessary?" growls Ozai Kasai.

"For reasons," states Azula. She sighs. "Because she was _onto us_ , and I am interested in her on a level stronger than friendship."

Ozai stands still for a moment, then narrows his eyes at Ty Lee. Azula sees it on his face; he knows a human cannot know of vampires and live on as a mortal. Or live at all. Azula also knows that her pet human will likely not survive the change; she faints at even the slightest touches. As soon as her father lunges at Ty Lee, Azula shoots to her feet.

She sees her father's move before he makes it and slashes her sharp nails at him. They do not even graze his skin. He throws a palm towards her to push her out of the way and reach Ty Lee, but she dodges it with ease.

Ty Lee loses track of the blurry fight; the vampires move too quickly. She slowly edges towards the old, thin window over Azula's bed. She tries to pry it open but cannot. Suddenly, the clash of ancient vampires ends and her breath catches.

"I take full responsibility for her actions," Azula hisses and Ozai freezes. "I invoke my rights."

"You wouldn't," he says, stunned by his daughter's actions. She never showed the slightest care even for another vampire in her centuries of undeath. This petty, bubbly human could not possibly change her so fundamentally. "I never thought…"

"Neither did I," Azula says firmly. "But I do. She will not survive the change and I refuse to let her die. I will take responsibility for her."

"Then she's on your head," snarls Ozai, his eyes flashing as he turns his gaze to Ty Lee. "Do not endanger my daughter, human."

"I w-w-won't!" stammers Ty Lee, blanching.

"Good. Family meeting," orders Ozai, turning to leave before he twists back to face the human. "I require your presence."

"Yes, sir," squeaks Ty Lee, shrinking even further. Azula touches her shoulder, but it does not comfort her much.

They walk downstairs. Mai and Zuko sit together, and Ozai glances between them both.

Ozai states begrudgingly, "The human knows about us. Azula invoked her rights."

Mai scoffs; Zuko looks bewildered.

" _She_ did?" he asks, pointing at his sister. " _Her_."

"Yes," Azula snarls, eyes flashing. Ty Lee swallows and steps slightly behind her. "You all will accept her and leave her alone."

"Whatever," Mai says, shrugging.

Zuko keeps his lips sealed.

Ty Lee rests her hand on Azula's cold elbow.

 **TOUCH**

The next evening, Zuko cannot help but notice that the mermaid girl watches football practice from the bleachers. She draws and writes in a notebook that he tries to figure out when he is not in the middle of a drill or order.

"Talk to her," orders one of the boys. His voice is not distinct among the chatter. "She's totally into you. The hot and weird ones are the freakie—"

Zuko strides away to avoid filling his ears with more of that garbage. He climbs up and sits down beside the girl he thought was just a self-righteous nature junkie who he now knows grows _fins_ every full moon.

"Hey," she says, not looking up from her book. He swallows and tries to ignore how angry that makes him. "Does it bother you that I'm not drooling and gushing like most girls here?"

"No!" Zuko snarls.

"Which," says Katara, still focused on her drawing of an anthropomorphized moon, "means yes. Entitled, whiny vampire boys are not my type."

"But you—you showed me your deepest secret and now you're acting like I don't exist."

"You haven't acknowledged my existence."

Zuko, now enraged, growls, "I look at you way more than I look at other girls!"

Katara chuckles. He fumes.

"Yeah. I'll try to be flattered by that." She at last snaps her notebook shut and meets his gaze. "Forgive me for not noticing that Prince Zuko the Magnificent looks at me more than other girls. Now, would you like to talk to me as if I am another human being and not just some damsel for you to kidnap and woo at your leisure?"

"Yes," grunts Zuko.

"Good," says Katara, edging closer to him. That confuses him.

With a loose, half-seductive smirk, Zuko runs his fingertips across Katara's skin. He then pulls back for reasons uncertain to him.

"Were you expecting scales?" she whispers.

"Maybe," Zuko replies. "I have never encountered a creature like you before."

"And what creatures have you encountered?"

"I have a long list. But mostly other vampires."

"My life is pretty boring compared to that. I've only met humans and humans and more humans."

"Nobody else like you?"

"No. But I believed in monsters because of it. I knew I couldn't be the only one. Then your family moved to town and I just _knew_ I was right."

"Does your brother know?"

"No. You're the first person I ever told."

"I… I kinda thought we weren't… friends."

"Oh, no, I don't know if we're _friends_ , but I showed you to figure out if you were really a vampire or if I was absolutely insane."

Zuko laughs and flashes a smile he _knows_ is charming. "I mean _mermaid_ is a bit more insane than _vampire_. There are _tons_ of vampires."

"Maybe there are tons of mermaids. I didn't hear you saying you were an expert."

"Are there tons of mermaids?"

"Not that I know of," says Katara, "but that's beside the point."

"Do you want to go out with me sometime?" asks Zuko, startled at how nervous he is. He never does get used to talking to girls, after all these centuries.

"No," Katara says casually, shrugging as if it means nothing.

"What do you mean _no_? I'm—I'm doing you a _favor_ by asking you out!"

"And somehow being immortal does not make you any less of an entitled dick. See you later, Zuko." Katara stands and walks away, towards her brother's truck.

Zuko shakes his head as the mermaid girl walks away.

 **LOST**

On Tuesday afternoon, Ty Lee goes over to Azula's house after school again. She grins the entire time and the vampire wonders if she has lost her mind, or if she is always like that.

When Ozai Kasai arrives home, "Get lost, human," he orders and Ty Lee leaps to her feet.

"Bye," Ty Lee chirps, grabbing her backpack and practically bolting from the house. She fears the wrath of the Kasai Coven leader.

Azula walks downstairs and picks up the cup her brother hands her.

"Family dinner," demands Ozai, which confuses the trio of adolescents. "I believe we could use a little _bonding_ now that we live in this dreadful town."

As soon as they settle, Zuko glowers at his little sister. Azula cocks an eyebrow at him as she sips the cup of blood.

"Why can Azula date a human?" Zuko demands.

Ozai makes a growling sound in the back of his throat and explains, "Because Azula is a responsible young woman whom I love and trust. She is not a crippling disappointment like you are."

"Of course," mutters Zuko, unsurprised by that answer.

"Perhaps if you did not endanger our family with your crush I would be less critical of your decisions," growls Ozai and Zuko sighs.

 _This_ lecture again. Why does he talk?

Meanwhile, as Ty Lee walks home, a familiar truck drives up beside her. She smiles at Sokka.

"Hey, fake sweetheart," he says, giving her a lopsided smile. "Need a ride?"

Ty Lee does not need to be invited twice. She hops up into the passenger seat and straps her seatbelt on. She leans back against the chair and studies her close friend.

"I got kicked out of Azula's house," she says foolishly. It seems to hurt him. "But I'm super happy I ran into you on my way home! I've missed you lately."

He smiles. She cannot quite dissect the way it looks. Everyone confuses her far too much.

"Yeah. I've, uh, I've missed you too," he says, so awkward. Ty Lee does love that about him. Yet, everyone in the world pales in comparison to the interest of a vampire princess.

"You can drop me at home," says Ty Lee, and he looks hurt again, as if he expected her to abscond with him on a school night.

"I'll see you," Sokka bids as soon as the truck rolls up to Ty Lee's long driveway.

She waves to him and hops down. He watches her braid flounce and cannot help but blush. Ty Lee _does_ find that lacking from her vampire love interest. Not enough to win her over, though.

Ty Lee scampers up to her bedroom and turns in for the night. She has sweet dreams, as always.

In the morning, Ty Lee sits beside Mai during her free period. The Kasai Coven has opened to her further now that she knows their secret, a curious fact. Perhaps they do not prefer to be around those who do not understand, not that Ty Lee truly can.

"Why were you all so surprised about Azula?" Ty Lee asks, her nose in a book she does not care much about.

"She's not the romance type. _But_ , she might have a… biological imperative." Mai seems to fish for words, and Ty Lee wonders why.

"What's that?" asks the human.

"For vampires… this attraction is stronger than anything any human could experience," says Mai. "But it's physical and only physical. It doesn't mean you love someone; it just means your bodies fit together. You want to be with that person like an addict wants heroin."

"Does she…?" Ty Lee thinks for a moment. "Do you?"

"I understand how it feels. I don't know if Azula does, but I'd bet anything that's why she's willing to risk so much for you. She's selfish, Ty Lee. She's selfish and cold and I don't think she could love if she tried. So, it's my only explanation."

"Then why doesn't she want to risk it and sleep with me?"

"Because she doesn't take risks. She wants what she wants and refuses to sacrifice that. Losing you would be unpleasant for her so she'll resist for as long as need be. Azula doesn't handle loss well; she never has."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"So you know. No other reason, neighbor girl." Mai stands up. "Maybe I'll see you in class."

Ty Lee watches her walk away, and gets up herself. After she packs her bag and starts wandering the halls, she bumps into Azula. Ty Lee leans in to embrace her in greeting and Azula steps backwards. Oh, the human forgot about the weird energy-draining thing.

"We can speak from this safe distance," says Azula crisply.

"Can we kiss just a little bit?" requests Ty Lee softly.

"It might make you pass out," Azula says sourly.

"So might cherry vodka but I drink that anyway," Ty Lee says, batting her eyelashes.

"No. You ought to work for my affections," Azula purrs. "Now, I must return to class."

She pivots and walks away.

Ty Lee watches that graceful creature move with her pink lips ajar.

 **LEGEND**

On Wednesday evening, Mai sits in front of the television and Zuko takes a seat beside her. She does not acknowledge him. They have hit an ignore-each-other phase of their strictly cyclical relationship and are content with that.

Yet, Zuko turns to Mai and speaks to her for the first time in two days.

He intends to be subtle, but blurts out, "Katara is a mermaid."

Mai does not even peel her gaze from the television screen when she flatly retorts, "I've seen her legs. She has legs. She's not a mermaid."

Zuko groans and attempts to explain. "No. She's like a… a _were_ mermaid. She turns into a mermaid when the moon is full."

Mai starts laughing. Zuko grits his teeth.

"She's a _weremermaid_? Is _that_ the rumor you're going to try to spread because she rejected you? I think lesbian or crazy would be a bit more effective."

"One, she didn't reject me. Two, she _is_. She _showed me_."

"She showed you?"

"Yeah. And it makes me wonder what other legends are real. If they're _all_ real or…"

"We haven't encountered many," says Mai. "Now have we?"

A _human_ voice interrupts, "Katara is a _what_?"

"Ugh. How did the human get here?" hisses Zuko.

"I was just doing homework with Azula," says Ty Lee, walking into the living room. "And then I was eavesdropping on you guys and _wow_! I'm like pretending to be dating her brother! I wonder if _he's_ a weremermaid too!"

"Neighbor girl, you _can't_ tell anyone. You shouldn't have overheard that," snarls Zuko. He sounds like a predator and Ty Lee recoils in terror. "Katara confided that in me, not you."

"I—my lips are sealed, I promise!" Ty Lee squeals.

She cannot believe it. She cannot believe that Sokka might be hiding something like that from her, but, she cannot say anything. Ty Lee needs to prove she can keep her mouth shut about true legends so that the vampires do not kill her.

So that Azula will not break up with her, which would be even worse.

 **OUTLIER**

"The human needs to go home," Ozai growls as soon as Ty Lee reaches the doorstep. Zuko gave her a ride after practice and Azula stands beside her. "I don't care if she's on the cheerleading squad with you and that you invoked your rights and that you _love_ her. I'm sick of seeing her face."

Ty Lee would never argue with the scariest man she has ever met. She thinks Ozai Kasai could snap her neck or worse in an instant, so she adjusts her backpack strap on her shoulder.

"See ya!" she chirps, before leaning in and kissing Azula.

The vampire princess jumps away, and her hand twitches to slap the human across the face.

"My father is right," snarls Azula through her teeth, while Ty Lee sways on her feet, lightheaded from the small touch. "You should get off of our property."

Ty Lee blushes and scampers away without another word. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why did she have to kiss Azula when she knew her vampire princess was against such things?

She just was standing there with the most perfect person in the world and found it almost impossible to resist. Azula's lips were _there_ and stunning and oddly full for a monster. Now, Ty Lee runs as fast as she can across the dirt road, towards her house.

What if Azula never wants to see her again?

How could she have made such a mistake?

She bursts into tears before she gets home, and skids to a stop at her front door. She sniffles and sobs as she walks inside and locks herself in her bedroom.

Within seconds, she sees a text.

 _'_ _You're an outlier,'_ Azula writes, _'and that means something, but you still must obey me if you want to be with me.'_

Ty Lee has no idea what to make of the message.

She just types back as hastily as possible, ' _ok.'_

 **KNOWLEDGE**

Zuko sits down by Katara in their Literature Class. She scrawls in her notebook like she always does and he reclines in his desk beside her. She looks up at him, knitting her brow.

"Do you need something?" she asks and he just shrugs.

"All I want is to see you. I'm fine that you don't want to date," says Zuko, although his ego still is extremely bruised.

"We _do_ have a connection. You know my deepest secret," says Katara. "That kind of knowledge is powerful."

"And you know mine," Zuko retorts, cocking an eyebrow.

Katara sighs and shakes her head as the teacher walks in, ending the conversation.

 **SUMMIT**

Sokka shows up at Ty Lee's house, knocking on the door. She prances out and grins brightly when she sees her best friend and fake boyfriend.

"Do you wanna go climbing?" he asks. "I've been waiting all week to hike with you."

Ty Lee beams and hugs him.

"I'd love that!" she chirps.

Because Azula is not talking to her since the kiss.

Because Sokka is second best, and she hopes he never finds out.

Because he already knows that.


	12. spontaneous and determined

_**chapter twelve: spontaneous and dedicated**_

* * *

Azula and Ty Lee sit at the diner they tend to meet at after school, in the blue booth at the end, across from each other. Ty Lee has a milkshake; Azula has nothing but a phone in front of her.

Ty Lee twirls her braid with one finger as she sweetly asks, "You've been alive for a long, long time, right?"

Azula shrugs one shoulder and corrects, "Alive might not be the proper word."

"But y'know what I mean, right?" Ty Lee says, blushing now. Azula cannot help but watch the way the blood rises in her cheeks.

"Yes."

Ty Lee barely whispers the next part. "Have there been a lot of people like me?"

"I have known many girls just like you." Azula would not call Ty Lee a particularly unique human, even if the attraction is one of a kind.

"I mean girls you've taken on dates," Ty Lee says after taking a nervous sip of her milkshake.

"No."

Ty Lee perks up, thrilled by that answer. "Have there been any?"

"No."

Now she could not be happier. "So, I'm the first?"

"Yes." Azula runs her crimson fingernail across the diner table. "But I have yet to take you on a real date."

"Let's go on one right now," Ty Lee suggests, a dreamy look invading her wide eyes.

Azula sneers at the poorly conjured thought. "How? We are ill-prepared."

Ty Lee eagerly insists, with the self-restraint of a puppy, "We don't have to be prepared. We can walk through town and window shop. That counts."

"Not as much as I would like, but I can humor you." Azula leaves cash on the table and escorts her girlfriend out onto the sidewalk.

As they walk, Ty Lee considers trying to hold hands but decides against it. She doubts it could last very long without her getting dizzy in a bad way. This whole _vampire_ thing makes a relationship very difficult.

"Oh, I love this song!" Ty Lee chirps as she listens to a street musician. Azula does not find it to her tastes so she just shrugs. "I want to dance."

Ty Lee steps into the street and Azula reaches out a hand to reel her back in before she realizes she would do more harm than good.

Azula snarls, fangs flashing beneath the street lamp Ty Lee considers to be a spotlight, "This is not an appropriate place to dance!"

"You're immortal. Why would you be scared of dancing in the street?" Ty Lee asks with a giggle, a blush and a bat of her thick eyelashes.

"You could pass out and get hit by a car."

"Would you let that happen?"

"No. I would whisk you away at the last moment but that does not mean I want to trifle with fate," Azula purrs and Ty Lee briefly frowns.

"I just like to be spontaneous or I get bored."

"I never am."

"I guessed." Ty Lee glides back onto the sidewalk and smiles at her vampire girlfriend.

"But I would be willing to experiment with it so long as you avoid getting hit by cars."

Ty Lee grins. "I promise."

"Good."

* * *

The next day, after football practice, Zuko clambers up the bleachers again. Katara sits, still doodling in that private notebook, and he stares at her for a moment. She has such marvelous, huge eyes the color of the ocean on a rare sunny day.

He clears his throat and asks, "Will you go out with me?"

Without looking up, Katara replies, "No."

Zuko slinks back down the bleachers and tries not to feel humiliated.

* * *

Azula and Ty Lee's first true date is a picnic by the beach, near the rugged cliffs. Azula does not eat any of the food, of course, but she does sit and watch Ty Lee chase seagulls. She wants to kiss her but they cannot afford another drowning incident.

Ty Lee prettily asks, picking up pebbles and letting them fall through her fingers, "Do you want to swim?"

"No," Azula replies, closing the picnic basket. Disgusting creatures will come after the food.

"Okay," Ty Lee says, trying to sound happy but coming off as crestfallen as she is.

Ty Lee runs across the grim, gray beach to swim in the freezing ocean water. Azula lingers behind on the pebble beach. She stares out and rubs her own arm as she looks at Ty Lee's body through her soaking wet sundress.

When Ty Lee turns around, Azula slips out of her shoes and runs across the sharp pebbles that do not leave a dent on her vampiress skin. She reaches the water just in time to let a wave the temperature of her body flow over her. The taste of salt lingers on her lips.

She thinks about kissing Ty Lee but instead takes several steps back to ensure she avoids it.

"Do you like the date?" Ty Lee asks.

Another wave hits before Azula can answer.

"Yes," sputters the somehow composed vampiress. "Yes, I do."

They go on several more "ordinary" dates and halfway pretend to be a human couple.

* * *

The next day, in the Ocean Science elective class, Zuko sits down at the desk beside Katara. She waves at him but remains fixated on her notes.

He shamelessly asks, "Will you go out with me?"

Without looking up, Katara replies, "No."

Zuko finds it impossible to focus on the lesson.

His mermaid does not want him, and it makes no sense.

* * *

At lunch, Zuko leaves the football players and sits across from Katara. She looks very focused on cutting up an apple.

He asks, "Will you go out with me?"

Without looking up, she replies, "No."

He stands up and goes back to sitting with the jocks.

* * *

This will be the last time, Zuko decides. If she says no now, he will accept that as the final answer and reluctantly move on. He sees Katara leaning against the school during her free period, soaking up the sunshine on such a strangely bright day.

Zuko walks up beside her and inquires, "Will you go out with me?"

Without looking away from the cerulean skies, she replies, "No."

Zuko sighs, slings his bag over his shoulder, and walks back inside.

* * *

After school, right before practice, Zuko chooses to ask Suki instead of Katara. He has a scheme in his head and she is gorgeous anyway. Plus, strong and extremely smart.

"Will you go out with me?" he asks, curling the edge of his lip.

A small smile creeps onto her lovely but perpetually determined face.

"Yes."

* * *

On Saturday, Ty Lee suggests an odd date compared to their usual ones: "My sister is moving into a new house. She needs help. I was thinking we could go over there, like… like something spontaneous. You said you liked spontaneous and it's what I'm best at."

Azula examines her fingernails and leaves the human waiting with bated breath.

"Alright," she at last states. "I suppose I could involve myself in the matters of mortals."

Ty Lee leans forward to peck her cheek but remembers herself hallway through the motion. She stumbles slightly as she recoils.

They get in the car and drive to Ty Lee's sister's house. The whole place is empty, sandy, dusty and cold. Heeled footprints of mud track into the foyer and Azula gazes at them with pure disdain in her glowing golden eyes.

"We should check out upstairs," Ty Lee's sister says, setting down an overly taped box.

"I do not see why not," Azula purrs and the three women walk up the rickety old staircase. It is narrow and exceptionally tall.

Most of the rooms bore the vampiress, but she sees one with an old piano inside. That draws her attention.

Ty Lee's sister follows Azula's gaze and comments, "The last owner left it behind. It wouldn't fit in their apartment in Ba Sing Se and it was too much a hassle to get out of this place.

Wordlessly, Azula drifts to the piano and brushes off most of the dust.

"Do you know how?" asks Ty Lee.

"I have had a long period of time to master many skills," says Azula as she sits down on the mahogany bench.

Azula sets her fingers on the keys. When she plays, it sounds like the work of angels, not that of the demon she truly is. Ty Lee listens, enraptured, and walks closer and closer to the hum of music.

"You have a talented girlfriend," says Ty Lee's sister, and Azula ceases to play.

"Please don't stop," begs Ty Lee.

Azula plays several songs and enjoys how Ty Lee melts while she listens. The ladies always do. Ty Lee's sister hums along to the music while she unloads the truck and starts setting up the boxes in their respective rooms.

After Azula becomes bored, she stands up and walks to the stairwell. Ty Lee collects her thoughts and walks to Azula. They stand facing each other, neither taking the first step.

"Can I kiss you?" Ty Lee asks.

"If it is quick," Azula breathes. She leans forward and grazes her lips against Ty Lee's. It makes Ty Lee weak in the knees.

Ty Lee lunges forward and presses her lips tightly against Azula's. Unfortunately, Azula does not push her away; she enjoys it too much.

Also unfortunately, Ty Lee blacks out not long into the passionate kiss.

And she tumbles, tumbles, tumbles down the flight of creaky old stairs.

* * *

Azula comes home alone from Ty Lee's sister's house. For her past dates, she always walked through that door with an expression of mild bliss. Now, she enters with her brow knit and teeth digging into her lower lip.

"What happened?" demands Ozai.

"She is in the hospital," Azula says, crossing her arms. "We kissed and she fell down a flight of stairs."

Mai steps inside, as does Zuko. Of _course_ they both must hear about this. Azula _hates_ this coven. Hates, hates, hates it.

She storms up to her room without another word. Zuko waits for a moment to hear the slam of the door, then waits for his father to rage at Azula, then realizes that will never happen regardless of what she does wrong. He sighs and walks back into the living room.

Mai turns to the patriarch of the Kasai Coven.

After a long silence, "I think their little fling has become a problem," somberly growls Ozai. "A liability, in better terms."

"Azula isn't reckless." Mai pauses. "But I agree."

And so, the family decides this affair between a vampire and a human must come to an end.


	13. the one in which azula loses it

**_chapter thirteen: the one in which azula loses it_**

* * *

Mai, Ozai and Zuko sit on the porch while the insects sing. Mosquitos buzz by but do not waste an instant of their time on the pallid monsters sipping blood like sweet tea. Azula went to visit her human girlfriend at Kyoshi Memorial and now they must discuss the problem their beloved vampire princess poses.

"The human is in the hospital; we could just finish her off," suggests Mai. "They do it in movies all the time. I don't know why we wouldn't be able to."

Zuko says, "I think that would defeat the purpose of trying to stay unnoticed."

Mai protests, "People die in hospitals constantly. They're filled with disease and malpractice. We could infect her with something."

And Zuko can only inquire, "I thought she was your friend."

"I don't befriend humans. She _thinks_ she is my friend because she is absurdly friendly. I hate friendly people…"

Zuko snaps, "You hate everything."

Mai coolly retorts, "When did that become a crime?"

Anger sparked, he harshly replies, "It's not. It's just why no one—"

And Ozai stops the argument before it can fully bloom by raising a hand. His son—disappointing as he may be—listens to it, and Mai leans back in her chair. A moth flutters by her left eye as she focuses on the patriarch of the Kasai Coven.

He announces with the authority of an emperor, "We can kill the human, but first we will hold a small intervention. If Azula doesn't agree to be responsible, we erase her indiscretion."

The door opens and the click of heels echoes against the linoleum.

Ozai rises and goes to greet his daughter, leaving a silent Mai and Zuko behind.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the dead of the night, the mermaid Katara swims in the ice cold ocean beneath the moonlight, her dark hair glistening as if enchanted by the water. She passes the multitudes of grey and tope fish that eye her for moments before placidly moving on.

She never has managed to impress the sea life. Maybe that does not bother her too much. Alright, it does annoy her just a little bit, but she moves past it easily.

They mean her no offense.

Katara cuts through the water like a knife, down to where the whole world is sparkling blue and freezing cold.

When she sharply and swiftly resurfaces, she gazes up at the moon.

Wolves howl in the distance, crying for what they cannot ever have.

And Katara knows that no one can have her because she belongs to no one but the sea. She swims to the shore and lies with her back on the gravel until her skin dries and once again she must be a human, or at least in a human form.

Once she pulls back on her clothes and walks towards town, she passes a night tour. People who come to the island for the countryside and recreation who want to hear about the silly myths and legends that might turn out to be true.

She listens in as they move on from the topic of a haunted house to the long lineage of alleged Water Tribe werewolves that once roamed the hills.

A mention of the mermaids as the tour approaches the beach.

Katara tires of the tour and slips away, dragging herself home and settling in her bed.

* * *

The next evening, Azula sits in the living room of her gross family home on this gross island and watches the gross human television shows while she contemplates the repercussions of her affair. She knows it is unwise and she has always been cold and brilliant.

Clever as the Devil and twice as pretty.

But a single disgusting optimist has officially brought her to her knees. It must end. Azula _knows_ it must end, even without seeing her in a medically induced coma. They certainly are not supposed to be together. That much has always been clear.

Like anyone sane, Azula cannot imagine a world in which a vampire and a human could have a sustainable relationship. And, in fact, with her personality, she doubts she could uphold a healthy relationship with anyone, vampire, human, werewolf… _anyone_.

She sits in front of the television, contemplating the girl she sent to the hospital with a mere kiss, a solitary cold caress.

Zuko announces, "I'm going out to the movies with Suki."

"With a human?" Azula sneers.

"Firstly, you're one to judge—"

Azula does not hesitate to viciously snarl, "I mean it because of how _you_ have judged _me_. This is hypocrisy at its finest."

Zuko rolls his eyes. "I'm not going to fall for her like you have. I'm just going out. Deal with it."

Azula glowers. "I don't love Ty Lee. I simply enjoy the pleasure of her company."

"Keep telling yourself that," Zuko says as he walks out the door while shaking his head.

Azula sticks her tongue out as the front door slams shut.

Before she can resume watching petty human television, her father stands in front of the screen.

"We are going on a road trip."

"You just missed Zuko. He's off with a human."

"He isn't _ever_ a necessary passenger. Now get ready and get in my car."

Azula does not dare to disobey her father when he speaks in this tone.

* * *

The Kasai Family does not make much contact with other vampires. Azula has been to her precious nightclub but, aside from that, they try to remain unnoticed. The bounty on their head is tempting even to the wealthiest of creatures.

Now, Ozai stands with Mai and Azula as they meet up with another coven. They were rebels in the Vampire Wars and now live in hiding, just like the Kasais.

Azula turns to her father while the Matriarch of the Sinha Coven grabs Mai and starts touring their pretty little house.

"Why are we here, father?"

"To show you the consequences of a relationship with a human."

"You could just remind me of Zuko again. He couldn't keep it in his pants and so—"

"You know very well that your… relationship with the human girl is different. Different in a particularly dangerous way. I know you are the most intelligent girl I have ever met—predictable with my strong genes—but I think you may be blinded by hubris."

Azula snaps without thinking, "Hubris? I would call murdering my father and starting a war something a little like _hubris_."

Ozai's hand twitches to strike her, but he restrains himself. She crosses her arms but takes a slight, submissive step back.

He says in that low tone that reminds her she is his daughter in a literal sense. "You think you're a deity, and in many ways, you are, but you are not as powerful as you think you are. You cannot _make it work_ with the human just because you are you, and you often claim to do several impossible things before noon."

Azula wants to say something vicious, something clever, but, for the first time, she draws a blank, because she knows her father is right and she knows how crazy she has been. The attraction makes little sense to her and she has stared at the ceiling for hours upon hours trying to figure out how neighbor girl thawed a few millimeters of her icy, unmoving, lifeless heart.

"I just always get what I want, father," Azula purrs, trying to sound repentant. He easily sees through it, but does not comment.

He knows his daughter must be aware of her sudden weakness, her inability to resist someone or something for the first time, her lack of adequacy when it comes to dealing with feelings. Ambition, conquest, violence, beauty, all easier than confronting a rogue emotion.

This will work. Today will work. Ozai has absolutely no doubts and complete faith in himself and his plans. She may always get what she wants, but so does he. Azula _is_ his daughter, after all.

He can fix this.

He always does.

* * *

Ten minutes later, "While this tour is riveting, I find myself curious as to why my father brought me here," Azula says sweetly, studying Sirima Sinha, the Matriarch of the Sinha Coven.

They stand in a room with the other vampires of the coven, two boys and two girls, and one older man wed to Sirima. They are occupied and pretend to pay no mind to the Kasais.

"Oh," says a woman who is used to Azula being the most polite girl she has ever met.

Mai dryly explains, rubbing her arm, "She's just cranky from the ride."

Azula snarls, "The ride was fine. I was _happy_ during the ride. It is the arrival I am _cranky_ —as you so _eloquently_ put it—about." Azula pouts and refuses to budge. "I didn't ask to come here."

"Everyone gets things they do not ask for," Ozai growls, and it quickly shuts her up. Yet, he does not quite have enough power to erase her sullen, embittered expression. "You don't understand disappointment, do you?"

Azula just nods because she has officially given up today. Everyone wants to attack her and she decides for once in her leviathan life to let them, because that serves her better than being belligerent or putting up resistance.

Her father thoughtfully adds, "I suppose that is not the worst problem for a parent to have with their child, is it?"

"No," interrupts Sirima, uncomfortably reminding the two that they are in view of others.

Sirima gestures to her youngest daughter, beautiful, with dark hair, milky skin and soft Earth Kingdom features. She sits texting on her phone with preternaturally fast fingers. One of the many vampiric benefits.

The Matriarch says with a long, pointed sigh, "I have a worse issue. Poor dear. Love her as I may, that one thinks she's more human than vampire."

Mai glances at Azula and adds bitterly, "Just like someone else I know."

Azula scowls, glaring daggers at her sort of sister. She has never been human. She does not want to be human. She does not understand these ridiculous people.

"This is why you brought me here," Azula says, and now the Sinhas no longer act like they are more interested in video games and books than the guests. "You think you're going to shock me out of this… this _phase_. And it _is_ a phase, if it even exists. I am fine. I am sane. I am not going to be _ruined_ by anyone or anything human, object or supernatural. What even happened?"

Softly, Sirima laments, "She's never been the same after losing that mortal boy. It broke her."

Azula haughtily snaps, "I do not break. I do not even bend. Do not presume I am as weak as your cute little daughter."

Sirima looks as if Azula just slapped her in the face.

"I…" she trails off. Her coven looks on in horror, save for the mentioned daughter.

Ozai interrupts, "Why don't we consider lunch? Azula can compose herself on the porch with Mai." His glare makes her silently nod.

Azula bows her head when she walks away, hating herself for losing her temper and mind.

* * *

Once they are outside, "Admit it," says Mai, crossing her arms. "You suddenly want to be human because you won't settle for something close to ordinary. You want to have everything and you want to experience what you never had. I doubt you even feel anything for her—she's just in love with you—and your whole deal is that you feel cheated because you didn't get to choose what you are. You were born a vampire and I bet it makes you want to throw a little tantrum."

Azula wants to claw out Mai's eyes, but she is stronger than her urges.

"I refuse to admit something untrue unless it benefits me," Azula snarls, although she knows Mai is right about her situation.

And Mai just shrugs, because why should she care?

* * *

Mai rises from the bed of the Kasai Coven Patriarch and strides to the shower. This home could not be more subpar. Maybe she never had the gems, gold and glorious fountains that Azula and Zuko bitch about missing. But she does find Kyoshi Island reasonably below her standards.

Still, she gets into the shower, dragging the shoddy, cheap plastic curtain across its rusty path and concealing herself inside. Mai twists the handle and lets the water pour over her.

She wants to go somewhere else, anywhere but here. Fuck this island and everyone on it and true rumors about her and Zuko. Everything about this move makes her livid, but she hides it behind lightly bitten lips and a cold façade.

Maybe if Azula slips up they will have to leave again, like so many times before. That was what Mai feared, feared not a day ago, but now as she eyes the corpse of a moth-worm in the corner of the shower, she thinks that might not be such a bad thing.

Perhaps execution would not even be so terrible anymore.

 _Of course_ Mai had the luck to be adopted into a coven of fugitive vampires. It honestly sickens her to the core, but she is about as good at confronting feelings as Azula is.

Seriously, life—undeath, whatever—is completely and totally unfair no matter how many centuries old you become. And—before she ran away—everyone told her things would improve after she emerged from her teenage years.

Mortals are such terrible liars.

* * *

The next day, Zuko stares at his text from Suki. In it late last night, she politely thanked him for the dinner and made sure he arrived home safely, like a headstrong goody two shoes of course would. He liked her, in truth. Their date was remarkably pleasant. He expected a swooning schoolgirl but instead received the company of someone very strong and self-assured, to the point of being overboard.

But, sitting on the steps of the school on a cold cloudy morning, he cannot stop looking at the mermaid. Could anyone blame him? Maybe mythical creatures belong together. Not that she seems to realize that or notice how handsome he is.

He just glowers and responds to the text in as few words as possible. But the moment he hits send, a girl arrives in front of him. Suki.

"Hey. Before you think I like you, I'd have you know you are blocking this entire way-too-narrow staircase," she says, cockily crossing her arms.

He does like that. Her confidence. It's impressive for a teenager.

So Zuko tries to think and avoid looking at the mermaid on the other side of the parking lot. He hastily says, "I really like your… hair."

"You really like _my hair_?" Suki laughs.

Zuko wants to die. "I don't know anything about women, as you might have guessed."

She smiles and says, "I did," with a pointed wink.

They walk into the school together, but he cannot help but throw one glance at Katara before she is out of sight.

* * *

That afternoon, a few hours after the end of school and cheerleading practice, Ty Lee lies innate in a sweaty hospital cot, her skin almost as cold as her lover's.

She could die. A kiss could have killed her; a caress could have condemned her.

Azula hovers above her human girlfriend after sneaking into Kyoshi Memorial.

All of them are wrong. Azula will _prove them all wrong_.

She is the daughter of Ozai Kasai, granddaughter of Azulon, great granddaughter of the first vampire ever created. And, therefore, she can date a human if she damn well pleases.

"I don't think you can exactly fathom that you have awakened some complicated and weak longing inside of me, and I can't reverse it, and I don't know how to be a girl who does not get what she wants," Azula states, relieved to say it aloud and twice as pleased that no one hears her.

The wolves howl in the distance, forlorn. Azula sits at the foot of the hospital bed, remaining unseen and silent. She does not know how to relinquish her need to have all she ever craves.

Azula stares at her feet until the angry sun rises.


	14. the ultimatum

**_Chapter Fourteen: The Ultimatum_**

* * *

Ty Lee dreams about red eyes. Crimson, scarlet, as brilliant as blood.

Ty Lee wakes up and sees red eyes. Crimson, scarlet, as brilliant as blood.

But they do not fit their face. Azula's eyes are gold, the most incredible molten gold that Ty Lee fell in love with. Her eyes are red and Ty Lee suddenly is scared, scared for the first time around the vampiress she adores with all of her still-beating heart.

Sleepily, Ty Lee mumbles, "Why—why are your eyes like that? They're red."

Azula closes them and when she opens them again they are gold.

The vampiress explains softly, "I was just thinking… thinking about you. It happens."

Ty Lee smiles. "Thinking about sleeping with me, or just about me?"

"Sleeping with you. It's… a vampire thing," Azula admits, swallowing any embarrassment.

"I _love_ vampire things." Ty Lee wiggles her eyebrows and Azula bats her ear as if she is a misbehaving puppy. Ty Lee giggles and loves that too much.

"Do you just want me because I'm a vampire? Is that it?"

"No. I want you because I've never felt so attracted to someone in my whole life."

Azula asks teasingly, "Not even your fake boyfriend, Sokka."

"Definitely not him. I dunno. On that hike we went on… I just _knew_."

"That isn't a good answer. Why do you want me? Do you want to be a vampire? I have no plans to make you one."

"Because it's terrible?" asks Ty Lee. "Because being human is terrible too."

"I wouldn't know. I never was human. The problem is that the process usually kills someone. It is like rolling a die and hoping it lands on you turning. I am not the type of person who takes risks."

"You'd let me grow old and die?"

"Every other mortal does. I knew that going into our relationship."

"It'd hurt you more than it'd hurt me." Ty Lee closes her eyes and briefly wishes she was still in that coma.

"Maybe. I have not properly organized my feelings yet. I just know I like being around you, so much that I'm risking my family's safety."

"Ooo, I didn't know Azula could be reckless." Ty Lee bats her eyelashes.

It takes every ounce of control in Azula's body not to kiss her so hard she fades away from this world yet again.

* * *

Standing in the dirty kitchen of her dreadful home, Mai says to Ozai, "I don't know why you think you can't trust me. I know I'm new to this little coven, but I'm your mate and I deserve answers. So, talk to me."

In a disproportionate burst of rage, Ozai grabs a dusty dish from the broken cabinet and throws it ferociously at the wall. It shatters into a thousand pieces, but Mai does not flinch. She does not think it was directed at her, anyway. It left a mark on the ugly orange wallpaper that was possibly as old as Mai.

"My daughter is missing, presumably with her little pet human. My son is already sending us down the same road he did last time with _his_ pet human. And I've been hearing things. I've been hearing things about my father."

Mai suggests for the first time, "Maybe we should stop running."

Ozai mirthlessly laughs, cold, dark, chilling to the bone. "Allow me to add your apparent suicidal state to my list. Do you hate this place that much? You've hated everywhere we've lived. You hated your life as a human and you hated your life as a vampire and I think you're smart enough to have realized by now that you will _never_ be happy."

"What's this about your father, anyway?"

"She got too close to the human already. It's only a matter of time before they find us. I know any contact with the mortal world gradually leaves us _vulnerable_ but I didn't take her to be the reckless type. She's smarter than this."

"She thinks she's in love, and she thinks she's in love for the first time. I know she might be old enough to be cold as ice but she's still fourteen mentally. Fourteen-year-olds do stupid things in the name of crushes."

"What would _you_ even know about that?"

"I ran away from home because I was in love with the wrong boy. One of us died for it."

Ozai's rage faded, replaced by fear.

He knew Mai's story and he did not want Azula to ever face a similar fate.

* * *

The next evening, after a long, boring day at school, Azula sits at the foot of Ty Lee's bed in her crowded country house, listening to her tell a mundane story.

How cute humans are.

Ty Lee edges closer; Azula edges away.

"I wish we could kiss," whines Ty Lee, lying down on her bed.

Azula stares down at her. "It could kill you. It _would_ kill you."

"It would be worth it," whispers Ty Lee, her eyes glazed and dreamy. Azula cocks an eyebrow.

"You're seriously willing to die to fuck me once? That's honestly kind of funny." Azula's smirks and fights back the powerful urge to laugh.

Ty Lee blushes lightly. She looks sickeningly cute. Azula should just rip her throat out with her glistening fangs.

"I'm a teenager, okay?" argues Ty Lee.

Azula scoffs and coolly remarks, "This recklessness must be why so many of them die tragically young."

Ty Lee hesitates for a few seconds before asking, "Aren't you one too?"

Azula pauses. "I never thought of myself that way. I am far too clever to be a teenager. At least, far too clever to be an ordinary one."

"You could never be ordinary," gushes Ty Lee with a flutter of her thick eyelashes.

Azula teasingly flexes her muscles. "I know. I am a beautiful, powerful monster."

Ty Lee feigns swooning and then straightens up. She smiles and gazes into Azula's eyes.

"I wish I could read your mind," she airily comments, something out of the blue.

It stuns Azula enough to let regrettable words slip through her lips.

Softly, Azula states, "If you could read my mind, you would be in tears."

Ty Lee furrows her brow, her lower lip slightly pouted.

"Why?" she begs to know, not expecting an answer.

"No reason." Azula backs away from vulnerability and Ty Lee allows it. Azula does not strike her as the type to ever be open about her feelings.

Azula shifts her weight uncomfortably and then abruptly stands up. She grabs her backpack.

"I should be going," she says, and Ty Lee watches her open the window and hoist herself smoothly up onto the ledge.

"Bye," whispers Ty Lee softly, tears glistening in her caramel eyes. Her vampire girlfriend sees ignores them because she finds it to be easier.

Azula jumps down from the second floor and starts her rapid walk home.

* * *

Zuko turns off the television when Azula walks into the house. He stares at her for a little too long and she shoots him a glare.

" _What_?"

"You're starting to acclimate, aren't you? A little too comfy. You'll hate it when you make us leave. I'll love it. This is officially the worst place we've ever been stuck."

Azula snarls without breaking eye contact, "And you _know_ why we're stuck in this place, don't you?"

Zuko stiffens. "Yeah, yeah."

Azula strides closer to him, standing in front of the silent television, arms crossed, glowering. "I want you to admit it. _Admit it_ , ZuZu, admit that it's because you're an idiot that we had to leave our best hiding place yet and settle on this horrible island with horrible neighbor girl!"

"Surprised you're complaining about that _horrible_ neighbor girl."

"Surprised you're so _confident_ when you fucked us royally in Ba Sing Se!" exclaims Azula, fangs bared, ready to shove him to the ground. "That city had museums, culture, nightclubs, good restaurants. What does _this_ place have? Frozen mud?"

Zuko flippantly remarks, "You sound like Mai. A really angry Mai."

Azula cannot control the outburst of emotion that overwhelms her. She has few of them. Maybe that is why this one is so powerful.

"I'm allowed to be bitter!" she screams, fists clenched. "I'm allowed to be as bitter as I want!"

He grits his teeth.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you are."

Azula bites back tears as she watches him stalk up to his bedroom.

* * *

On the weekend, Azula demands Zuko drive to Ty Lee's house. He does not care enough to say no at this point, so they roll up in the driveway. She sits on the front porch sipping tea from an ugly plastic glass.

Azula jumps out of the car and strides up to the porch swing.

Ty Lee skids to a stop and beams at her vampire girlfriend.

"Care to go hunting with us?" offers Azula, a cold smile spreading across her ivory face. "Just you and me and Mai. Best friends forever, as you call us."

Ty Lee smiles as she says, "I'm a little green at it. Whatever it is."

"Kidnapping humans and consuming them, of course," Azula says, her lips twitching.

"Sounds fun." Ty Lee hops right into the car. Zuko thinks she might be certifiably insane; Azula finds that kind of blind loyalty rather attractive. "Where to?"

"A fairground a little ways north of here," explains Zuko as he twists the key in the ignition. The car rumbles to life like a dragon woken from slumber.

 _Remember dragons?_ Azula almost asks her brother, but she decides against it. It makes her sad for a flicker of a moment. Maybe immortality has downsides she tries not to think about too often, like being one of the few people alive who still remember the fire in a dragon's eyes.

Ty Lee smiles in her ignorant bliss and turns the radio on.

* * *

Ty Lee devours pink cotton candy in one hand and blue cotton candy in the other while she strides between Zuko and Azula. They scope out the situation, trying to pick out just the right meal from the crowd. The human walking with them pays it little mind.

Azula stumbles to a stop. Zuko whips around wildly.

"Did you find someone?" he asks, and at first, infuriatingly, she does not respond.

She slowly points at someone in the middle of the flock of humans. A _vampire_ in the middle of the flock of humans.

"That's… that's Lu Ten." Azula feels a surge of panic and no instinct programmed into her vampire body knows how to react. She is rendered defenseless, and sets an arm protectively in front of the human in her care. Zuko looks like he might pass out from pure fear.

"Run," says Zuko, and Azula does not think he has ever posed a better idea in his life.

Azula grabs Ty Lee and throws her over her shoulder (she could never keep up with creatures of the night). The two siblings weave through the crowd as they run at an inhuman speed. They make it to the opposite side of the fairground and dive behind an abandoned cotton candy stand.

"What was that? What was that? Why? How?" Azula cannot sound as smooth and eloquent as she always does. She could not force herself to be composed if she used any trick she invented over the centuries.

"Do you think he saw us?" frantically whispers Zuko.

"I don't know, but the fact that he's here…" Azula sits back on her haunches. Ty Lee feels tears blossom in her eyes as she watches the agony in her girlfriend. "It's like they said that first day. They said they would hunt him to the ends of the Earth. That he would never win. That… they would never stop looking."

"What did you do?" snarls Zuko and Azula bares her teeth. "What did you do?"

" _Nothing_. I have had the utmost restraint. None of us have done _anything_ detectable. They must just be… lucky," says Azula, trembling.

"I don't believe in luck."

"That's because you're unlucky."

"Shut up," snarls Zuko. "We need to get out of here before he notices us."

Azula seizes Ty Lee by the arm, yanking her away from the strands of mint green cotton candy she has placed on her tongue. The trio bolts away from the gathering of humans without a meal, and jump into Zuko's car to drive back to Kyoshi Island.

Zuko drives fast. Ty Lee tries not to panic over it.

"Who was he?" Ty Lee screeches, eyes wide as saucers. Azula turns to her. "Who was he?"

"My cousin. It was only a matter of time."

"It was only a matter of time because here we are _with her_! I thought maybe this island was backwater enough tat you could play with her for a little while but—"

"I am not playing with her!" screams Azula, baring her teeth. They glisten with saliva and venom.

"Of course you are! It's what you do! You don't love people, you don't care about people, you toy with them until they tire you!" Zuko bellows, pressing even harder on the gas pedal.

Ty Lee thinks she might hurl up that cotton candy.

"So your cousin is looking to kill me?"

"No. He is looking to arrest my family. Did I never tell you we were on the run?"

"From the… vampire authorities?"

"Something like that," says Azula, waving her hand dismissively. "He probably didn't see us." She glances over her shoulder and sees no one on the road behind them. "We're fine. We will be fine. We always have been, even with that close call in Ba Sing Se."

"Don't turn this around to be about me again!" Zuko shouts, gripping the steering wheel so tightly it cracks lightly beneath the force.

"I didn't mention you!" snaps Azula, about to rip his head from his body. "I just mentioned the horrible fight we went through before we escaped to this awful island. Ty Lee has a right to know."

"No! No, she doesn't! Ty Lee doesn't have a right to know anything because she's _human_! She's not even your mate! She's just your girlfriend!" Zuko exclaims exasperatedly.

"Shut up!" Azula screams.

Zuko drives faster, seething in the livid silence.

Ty Lee shrinks in the back seat.

* * *

Late that night, the inevitable final fight over Ty Lee erupts.

They told Ozai and Mai about Lu Ten. They all concluded that the human was the problem, despite Azula's endless protests.

This one is the big one. This one is the one that will inevitably lead to a solution. No one wants to pretend that Azula will come to her senses anymore. No one _can_ pretend that their enemies will not find them if Azula continues strengthening a connection with the mortal world.

They stand around Azula in the living room but she does not show a trace of fear.

"We're not adopting her like a stray dog!" shouts the patriarch of the coven in response to Azula's weak suggestion. "Not when our enemies are so close!"

"She knows our secret. She knows _us_. She almost died for us. She is _our_ human now," Azula says, leaving Ozai very briefly awestruck.

Azula is the child he loves. Azula has done nothing wrong in her immortal life. Azula never argues with him and trusts his judgment.

"I've made my decision," states Ozai, and each vampire in the room knows it to be final. "We're putting the stray human out of her misery and leaving this town."

"Don't kill her. I'll take her away, far away. Just give us a car and some time to escape," Azula pleads, her eyes wild like they never before have been.

Ozai growls, "If you leave a coven, you can never return. You know the rules."

"Yes, father. Yes, I do." She storms up to her bedroom and begins to pack.

No one follows her at first, but when she is halfway through organizing her bag, Mai barges into the room without knocking. The door screeches in protest; Azula stays silent.

"What is it? You can't stop me," snaps Azula, shoving her clothes into the leather backpack.

"Azula," Mai says, and her sort-of-sister turns around to face her. "This is crazy. You know this is crazy, right? Her life is a split second. You'll get bored of her even faster than that. It's not worth making a permanent commitment. She's not worth this."

"None of you people are worth kill her over. I've never cared for anyone in this coven. I've never cared for anyone but this one human, and I will not let anyone take her away. Do not destroy what is mine for I do not love you enough to withhold retribution."

Mai stands mute.

She decides there is nothing she can do.

* * *

In the wee hours of the morning, Ty Lee wakes to a vampire unlatching her window.

"Can I come in?" murmurs Azula, perched on the windowsill.

Rising to her feet and yawning, Ty Lee nods. "Mhm."

Azula slides inside of the bedroom and cautiously eyes Ty Lee's sleeping sister. She does not even stir as Azula steps over and sits down on Ty Lee's bed. Ty Lee does not notice anything strange until she sees Azula set a hiking backpack beside her on the creaky mattress.

"We're leaving," commands Azula, her eyes red instead of golden. "The two of us are getting in that car and getting out of this town."

"Why?" begs Ty Lee, her heart racing uncontrollably. This is so _sudden_.

Azula plainly explains, "My father is going to kill you if we don't."

Ty Lee's heart skips a beat.

"He'll kill me if we don't…?"

"Ty Lee, do not doubt us. We have killed humans like you for centuries and no one will hold back just because you're my favorite pet. Pack your things, get in my car, and we'll skip town before he knows what hit him." Azula's words are sharp and certain. Ty Lee gazes into crimson eyes and tries to figure out what to do.

At last, she decides.

Ty Lee manages to pack two pink bags without waking any of her sisters.

Ty Lee creeps downstairs with Azula and walks to the gravel driveway, where Zuko's car waits in a deep slumber.

Ty Lee walks to the car and watches Azula assuredly get inside, spinning the keys around her long, cold finger.

Ty Lee opens the passenger side door.

Ty Lee does not move—she barely breathes—as Azula drives towards the lazily rising sun.


	15. birthday cake

**.**

 ** _Birthday Cake_**

 **.**

A liberated vampire and runaway human blaze down the highway with no regard for traffic laws. The radio blares with classic rock until the human abruptly reaches over and twists it off.

Ty Lee softly asks, "Will your family…?"

"They won't follow us," says Azula, sensing the end of the sentence.

"Why not?" asks Ty Lee, eyes widening with disgusting pity. Azula grinds her teeth. "They're your family. Even my family would go looking for me once they eventually realized I was missing. _Will_ go looking for me once they eventually realize I'm missing."

"My coven watched me pack. If you leave a coven, you cannot return, and they all know that as well as I do. My mother left and she could never come back."

Ty Lee pouts and narrows her protuberant eyes. "That's a dumb rule."

"I don't think she would have come back, even if she were allowed." Azula momentarily tightens her grip on the steering wheel. "She thought we were all monsters. I guess by definition we may be, but she was relatively self-righteous and only ever favored my brother. I was glad she left and I was glad that she could never return."

"Is it, like, a magic thing that you can't return or what?"

"More of a law," states Azula casually, as if this is not mythical madness. "Breaking the bonds of a coven is an irrevocable act, the second worst thing a vampire can do. If I were to return, I would pay the price of death."

"What's the first worst thing a vampire can do?" inquires Ty Lee.

"Murdering a family member; murdering another _vampire_ family member, at least. I'm not sure how or if it applies to human family members."

"Is it even possible?"

Azula tightens her grip on the steering wheel. "Yes. That's why my family is on the run. My father killed his father, and my cousin for that matter but I find that less dramatic."

"Do the other vampires really care so much to hunt you guys down?"

"Yes. It is mainly a political thing having to do with royal bloodlines and other complicated nonsense. It held far more gravity than an ordinary crime of that nature, but, either way, the culprit and their coven would be put to death."

Ty Lee sucks in her cheeks and shakes her head. "Why not just punish the person who did it?"

Azula raises her eyebrows. "I don't know. I am not an expert on vampire law."

"So, um, you have money with you, right?"

"Of course I do. My family will not cancel my credit cards; they love me too much."

"You're… sure of that?"

" _Yes_!" snaps Azula, offended in an instant. "I am sure of that."

"Oh. Okay." Ty Lee covers up her nervousness with a smile.

They continue soaring down the highway skyline.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Kasai Coven convenes in their living room. Mai sits on the sofa, legs kicked up on the dirty coffee table. Zuko leans against the battered window with his arms crossed. Ozai stands straight and regally in front of the television.

Ozai says coldly, "We're starting fresh. Anew. Without her."

"Okay," replies Zuko, a little too eagerly for Mai or Ozai's liking.

Mai says nothing. She does not know if she misses Azula or not, but she does know that there is nothing she can do. Is she unhappy because of her best friend leaving her life forever or simply because she always is unhappy?

"I don't know if we should ignore her. Pretending like she never existed seems like a horrible idea to me," says Mai, attracting the immediate ire of Ozai and Zuko.

Ozai growls, "That is protocol."

"Yeah," says Mai, trying to cover up caring with icy fact, "but we're pretending to be humans, and when a human runs away, people file missing persons reports and put up flyers."

But Ozai already thought it through. "We tell them she went to live with her grandparents. No one will find that too strange."

"And when she never returns?" asks Mai, cocking an eyebrow.

Ozai declares, eyes smoldering, "We will cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Okay. We have a plan." Mai shrugs.

Zuko purses his lips and ponders this new life. He never liked Azula—hated her, in fact—but his skin crawls when he thinks about his sister abandoning their coven. Is neighbor girl worth it? Azula despises humans; how could one make her permanently leave her family?

He tries to focus on the bright side—and there certainly is one—in order to move on with his life. They all need to do that.

As hard as it may be.

* * *

Still (mostly) contentedly ignoring his sister's disappearing act, Zuko attends Katara's birthday party on Saturday. People must like her, because quite a crowd has gathered at a party with no alcohol or copious freedom whatsoever.

The only sign it is a party and not a dull town hall meeting is a three-tiered cake and bubblegum pop music in the background.

Zuko considers leaving before Suki comes up to him and touches his arm. He does, in fact, find her wildly attractive. Not so enticing as a _mermaid_ , though.

"Do you want some cake?" offers Suki.

"No. I'm on a diet for football," lies Zuko. It is one of the easiest ways to cover up that he is a vampire. Lies come naturally after the first few centuries.

He never quite felt bad about them in the first place.

Katara draws his gaze and he squeezes Suki's arm.

"I'm gonna greet the hostess. See you in a minute." He smiles at her and she waves.

He follows Katara to the edge of the room and leans against the wall beside her.

"Hey," he says.

"You're trying to pick me up again," she replies sharply.

"Well, yeah. I like you. One date wouldn't hurt." Zuko tries to give off his best vampire glamor, but she seems to be immune.

"This is just the chase for you. Don't think I don't know that. All you want is to get me to go out with you. You enjoy the pursuit." Katara shakes her head at him.

Zuko leans in and says in utter honesty, "You told me your deepest secret. You know mine. It's definitely more than a-a game."

Katara sighs, because she must admit she felt initial attraction to him before she thought twice. "Yeah, I guess. But I don't know what you even like about me outside of those secrets."

' Zuko attempts, "Your hair. It… smells good. And you're bossy. I like that."

"Such skilled flirting," Katara says sarcastically.

Zuko touches her arm. "I can do better."

"Try me," Katara says. She sounds so smug that Zuko knows he needs to bring his A Game. Despite being kind of terrible with women.

"Your eyes are the color of…" He freezes up. She laughs. "Your eyes are the color of the sea in a postcard someone sends you when they miss you but not enough to ever return."

Katara sets her hand over her heart. "How touching."

Zuko smirks.

* * *

Azula pulls over at a rest stop framed by lush green plants and Ty Lee turns to her vampire girlfriend. They ignore the humans waltzing by to purchase sodas and use the bathrooms.

"Do we have, um, a destination in mind?" asks the human. "Not that I care, really, wherever you wanna go is fine by me. Great by me!"

"I have one place in mind, but I… I loathe even thinking about it," says Azula, leaning back in her chair and unstrapping her seatbelt.

"Where?" whispers Ty Lee, leaning in.

"The right question is _'Who?'_." Azula purses her lips in utter distaste before explaining curtly, "We are going to find my Uncle."

"You have an Uncle?"

"Yes. And I hate him."

Ty Lee looks puzzled. "Then why find him? Aren't we good on our own?"

"I…" Azula hesitates. She does not know how to explain these things to an outsider. She has spent her life only interacting with other vampires, and occasionally the humans she deems lesser than herself. "Look, I am not certain how to live as a fugitive. I've started over many times for _many_ years with my family, but I honestly do not know how to do it myself. My father always handled our… fresh starts, our disguises… And not only is there a King's bounty on my head, but I am harboring a human. A human who knows my secret. I need IDs, papers, a safe place. He offered to do that for Zuko when he fell for a human, but my father intervened. They fought. Caused a good deal of property damage. Zuko turned down my Uncle. But perhaps… despite how I loathe him, he would help us start over the same way."

Ty Lee gently touches Azula's ice cold arm. As soon as it makes her faint, she pulls away, but she still says with all of her heart, "I trust you no matter what."

Azula just replies, "You shouldn't."

Ty Lee bites her lower lip.

* * *

Still at Katara's dull party, "How is there a blizzard in springtime?" Zuko demands, swiftly livid.

He happens to now be stuck at Katara's house, at the most boring teenage party of his life, surrounded by people he dislikes. Surrounded by _humans_.

At least it gives him more time to try to make the mermaid warm up to him.

"Welcome to Kyoshi Island," says Suki, setting her hands on the windowsill. All that can be seen is bright, blinding white.

Zuko turns to Katara. "Well, I guess we get to spend more time with the birthday girl."

"Fabulous," sarcastically replies Katara. "I'm thrilled."

Zuko shoots her a cocky grin.

She forcefully rolls her eyes.

* * *

After attending to every other guest, Katara stands across from Zuko. He leans over the side of the white marble kitchen island.

Katara offers, the music growing louder until the control of one of her friends from International Studies, "Do you want to see my dad's old books?"

"Sure," replies Zuko, uncertain what that means, yet intrigued.

Katara leads him to a clearly deserted office. It smells of old books and used up incense. A small, dusty window lets a minimal amount of the bright white light in.

Stepping to the bookshelves that line all of the walls, Zuko examines the titles of the volumes, some archaic and handwritten, some crisp and moderately new. They all relate to mythical creatures, and Zuko wonders for a moment how many are real. He always knew about vampires, but he never considered the fact that there could be others until Katara revealed herself to be a mermaid.

"What did your dad do? Was this… a hobby?" Zuko furrows his brow.

"More than a hobby. He was a monster hunter. I mean, first he was a soldier, but when he retired, he… we thought he was crazy. Sokka still does. But my Gran-Gran and I, we know he wasn't. I mean, I grew _fins_ one day so…"

"Yeah. I guess developing gills would be a bit of a rude awakening."

"Not rude," she corrects and Zuko raises his eyebrows. "I like it. I always wanted monsters and ghosts and creatures to be real. It just seemed better than the world most people experience."

Thunder crashes and lightning flashes.

"So, where's your sister been?"

"She ran away."

"Are you looking for her?"

"No." Zuko stares at her aghast expression for a moment. "Don't you know anything about vampire law from these books? If you leave a coven, you can't come back. That's just how it is."

"Why?"

Zuko runs his finger down the spine of a book and then examines the collected dust on the tip of his pallid finger. "My father probably knows, but I don't. He was around to remember the reasons they made up the rules, but I wasn't."

"Did he create you?"

' "I was born, not made. I mean, technically made, but not the way most people are. So was Azula. Just not Mai."

"Who's your mother? Do you… have one even? I'm—uh—not entirely certain how vampires are conceived and born." Katara blushes. Zuko likes the flush on her cheeks.

But then he sobers, thinking about Ursa. He misses her from time to time, although he knows there is nothing he can do without abandoning his coven and being stranded forever too. He is still in shock that Azula left. He cannot imagine a vampire being that foolish, that out of their mind. But maybe she always was a bit crazy. And Ursa was a lot fed up.

"I had one," quietly admits Zuko as Katara slides a book back onto the shelf. "She left a couple decades ago. I'm probably never going to see her again."

"I'm… I'm sorry. I lost my mother too."

Zuko looks away.

Katara steps towards him but he steps back.

Both of their hearts hurt as Zuko just leaves the room, afraid to have this conversation.

Katara stares after him, baffled as ever by the vampire boy.

* * *

Far from Zuko and Katara, Azula stares up at the stars while lying down in her car.

"Is this worth it?" she asks her companion.

"Azula, I guess it's like," says Ty Lee, lying down beside Azula in the back of the car. The stars shimmer brightly above and the human loves to look at them through the sun roof. Taking a break makes Ty Lee smile a little bit. She adores these moments with Azula. "I love you. You love me. This is all worth it. All of it."

Azula sits straight up at a speed that makes Ty Lee dizzy. "It isn't—it isn't _love_. It's an addiction. It's an addiction I cannot bear to break."

Ty Lee sits up too kisses her. "That's better than nothing," she whispers as she pulls away, taking a moment to steady herself as the dizziness and fatigue washes over her.

"I cannot imagine how something could be worth the suffering. Especially someone who does not love you like you love her." Azula stares at her feet.

Ty Lee crawls over to kneel in front of the vampire.

"You left your family forever to save my life," she whispers.

"And sometimes I have second thoughts."

Ty Lee giggles, a reaction Azula finds puzzling at best.

"I'm handful." She blushes. "Not like that. Well, like that. Just not with you, though. Not with you yet, though."

"Maybe. You _are_ stuck on this journey with me for now. Do you want to be? I could… I could drop you off back at home and find my Uncle alone."

"You can't get rid of me that easy." Ty Lee beams. Azula shakes her head.

"I have no idea why you want to be any part of this. I have no idea why I want you to be any part of this. I hate humans. I _hate_ humans. I am better than them. Better than _this_. I do not know how I let one get inside of my head."

"Love is weird like that."

"Just…" Azula rolls her eyes and looks away.

"I'm sorry. I'm with you, though. Wherever you wanna go, whatever you wanna do."

"You cannot possibly be that serious. No one could."

"I promise I can. You and me. Together forever."

"Not forever."

"I want it to be forever."

"It won't be."

Ty Lee averts her eyes.

* * *

At school, Katara approaches Zuko. He cocks an eyebrow, unsure what to think. She has been avoiding him constantly since revealing herself to be a mermaid, and their only close conversation in ages has been in her father's office.

He imagined after panicking and deserting her she would never speak to him again.

"I was thinking about going for a swim. Wanna come?" Katara smiles softly at him. She honestly wants to pry, wants to see that sensitive side again she witnessed while discussing his mother. Showing off her mermaid side might be what it takes.

"It's snowing."

"You don't feel cold. Or hot. You're a great swimming partner for me." Katara nudges him. He tilts his head to the side.

"Uh… swimming? I dunno. I dunno about swimming." He thinks she must have ulterior motives.

"Do you want to meet the Unagi?"

"The what now?"

"Unagi. It's a sea monster."

"Something tells me it's a terrible idea to meet sea monsters."

"You don't need to breathe. You can swim underneath like me."

"That doesn't mean I want to get eaten by an… Unagi."

"It won't eat you."

"Okay. But an Unagi sounds pretty fucking sinister."

"Trust me." Katara laces her fingers with hers.

He decides to take a chance.

* * *

In the morning, Azula turns to Ty Lee. The human is groggily waking, rubbing her eyes and squinting in the sudden sunlight.

"Hey." Ty Lee sits up, smiling. She leans in to kiss Azula but then leans back. "I hate I can't kiss you good morning. Kiss you goodnight. Kiss you at all."

"You cannot imagine how difficult it is for me not to touch you. Not to wrap my arm around you at night. But this is how it must be," Azula purrs, sounding casual and careless about it despite her strong feelings.

"I really, really, really want you." But Ty Lee does not know how to have her.

Azula leans forward and whispers huskily, "You are my deepest hunger."

Ty Lee's long eyelashes flutter softly as she replies, "And you're mine."

Azula scowls and sits back on her haunches, startling her human girlfriend. "It is not the same. I am a vampire. I want to feed on people I desire. You just want to make out."

"I guess not," says Ty Lee sweetly. "But it's similar."

For once, Azula surrenders to the lesser being while rising to resume their journey.

"Yes," she breathes as she moves towards the driver's seat, "yes it is."

Ty Lee smiles and hops into the passenger seat.


	16. the eyes of serpents

**.**

 _ **The Eyes of Serpents**_

 **.**

Ty Lee dreams of snakes. No, dragons. No, dragons and snakes. She lies helplessly atop the serpents, gasping for breath and struggling against her paralyzed body to break free. Above her, a dragon swoops down and breathes a puff of steam through its nostrils. Ty Lee feels the damp heat against her sweaty skin. Suddenly, in smoke that glimmers in colors Ty Lee never imagined, the dragon transforms into a gorgeous woman.

"I am Baem Yong." She extends a milky-white hand. "Come with me."

Her voice echoes in a way that chills Ty Lee to the bone, but she takes Baem Yong by the hand and lets the dreamy woman guide her through the shadows.

They come upon a field that lies in ruins.

Ty Lee squints at the crumbling decay, looking for some way to understand it. Then she recognizes it. She recognizes this place.

"Kyoshi Island?" she murmurs.

Baem Yong opens her mouth, perhaps to answer, perhaps to breathe sweet flame, but a baby begins to wail. Ty Lee steps forward, towards the sound of the howling infant that lies sheated in white blankets in the middle of the ruins that once were Ty Lee's home.

She reaches to pick up the child, but before she can even touch the ruddy, sobbing baby Ty Lee wakes with a start as a lamp shoves her by the shoulder.

She finds herself in a sleazy motel, lying in a bed with scratchy sheets. Her vampire lover is shaking her shoulder with a lamp as a barrier between them to prevent any nasty side effects of prolonged contact.

"Were you having some weird sex dream?" asks Azula.

"What?"

"You were… active. Or perhaps a nightmare, but I doubt happy girls like you have those."

"I…" Ty Lee ponders her dream for a moment and then fights back the urge to shudder. "Do you believe in prophetic dreams?"

"Prophetic. Big word for you," diverts Azula, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

"I had a weird dream about dragons."

"Dragons?" Azula purses her lips and Ty Lee watches her closely. At least, the vampire speaks. "I miss dragons. They used to be everywhere before they were hunted to extinction. I love them. Loved them. They were such beautiful beasts."

"I wish I could've met one."

"A lot is lost when you are immortal. I tore a shirt that I could never repair or replace because the tree that produced its fabric had gone extinct. It was a shame."

Ty Lee giggles. "I don't think too much about what it's like to be immortal. I guess all it means to me is being pretty forever and ever."

"So… vampires don't sleep. I hope you weren't bored," says Ty Lee, trying to focus on Azula.

"I spent my excess of time thinking about the ramifications and benefits of running away. I thought about my future. _Our_ future." Azula licks her lips, then bites gently down, showing her glistening fangs for a moment. "I chose you above everything else I ever had. I need to make sure our life together is worth it."

Ty Lee does not know what else to say but, "Yeah?"

"We cannot properly be together unless I achieve what I desire most. Once I have it, maybe I will turn you. I will be with you, nonetheless."

"What is it you want?"

"My rightful throne."

"Your… uh…"

"Yes. I do not want to live the life of a fugitive with you. Being on the run is not as glamorous as the movies make it seem. I want to live the life I always deserved, and I want to live it with you beside me. Is that too much to ask?"

"No. I quite like the idea of being a vampire princess's wife."

"Wife?"

"Uh. Maybe. Mate. I'm your mate, right?"

"Maybe. I will not know until… _if_ you become a vampire too. And that is off the table until I am sitting on my throne, the throne I was born to inherit, the throne robbed from me by my father's power hungry impulsivity."

"I thought you loved my father."

Azula moves with that sleek, vampiric grace to Ty Lee in a flash like lightning. Their faces hover tense inches apart.

"I love you more."

End of discussion.

* * *

After driving down the highway for ages, they stop in a diner. Ty Lee beams.

"I love diners!" she chirps.

"You love everything. Because you are dumb. Thankfully, I find dumb endearing."

Ty Lee has had too little sleep to be patient. Yes, Azula could kill her in a split second, but the vampire struck a nerve.

Shrilly, Ty Lee insists, "I am not _dumb_. I just like nice things that make me happy. At least I don't want to be mean and fight all the time like some people."

It strikes Azula speechless, at first. She stares, lips parted, fangs glinting in the ugly fluorescent light. She blinks.

"I suppose. To each her own," Azula purrs.

Azula grabs Ty Lee by the arm and guides her to a table, where they wait patiently for one of the three tired waitresses. One pours coffee in two cups—one of them chipped—and asks for an order. Ty Lee hesitantly gives one for a strawberry milkshake and chocolate chip pancakes. Azula just gives the waitress a silent smirk.

"So, uh," asks Ty Lee, "what's the plan?"

"We are going to find the one person who can assist me on my quest," says Azula, and then she bitterly frowns. "I despise him, but it is all I could come up with last night. My Uncle would not turn me in. I think, if we play up the sweet, forlorn love thing, he would be useful."

"You have an Uncle?"

"Yes, but it has been centuries since I last saw him," says Azula.

"But you know where he is?"

"Yes. I have a few contacts remaining. Other bloodsucking fugitives he has a soft spot for, and some still abiding by the law without the temptation to turn us in."

"Oh. That's good!"

"I know exactly where to find him. A very old vampire is throwing a very classy party. He does every single year on the solstice. It will be a gathering of the worst thieves, sadists and politicians that the world can offer." Azula pauses as Ty Lee—beaming—receives her pale pink milkshake. "It is in two days time. We need new clothes."

"I _love_ clothes shopping!"

* * *

Many miles away from the tacky diner, Mai Kasai stands across from her mate. She has her arms crossed, her expression cold and chiseled. Yet, he seems even stronger than her. He perhaps is the only person who can be.

Mai insists coolly, "We clearly don't follow the rules very well. If we're fugitives, why the fuck do we need to abide by them in the first place? Let's get her."

"This conversation is over." Ozai walks away.

Mai takes a few steps to pursue him but stops when he walks out the back door, slamming it fiercely behind him. The screen rattles.

She turns around, unhappy about the end of the fight that lasted at least an hour. Zuko leans in the doorway, having heard the whole thing.

"I hate him. He's ridiculous and this is ridiculous," dryly says Mai.

"You've never had your hopes and dreams crushed by my father, but, for me, it's a regular occurrence."

"I don't have hopes and dreams, and I don't have time for your daddy issues either."

"Look, Azula doesn't want to be followed if she left knowing the rules. She abandoned you. Deal with it."

Mai does the most impulsive thing she has in decades and punches him in the jaw.

He reels backwards, grabbing his face, as she storms up to her room.

* * *

Ty Lee sits atop a pink blanket she packed in a small city park. Shopping bags rest at her feet and her head rests on Azula's shoulder, pressed only against her coat to avoid skin-on-skin contact.

"Are you scared of anything in our relationship?"

"I fear nothing. I have no reason to." Azula turns slightly. "Are you?"

"I'm happy." Ty Lee closes her eyes. "I'm so happy right now."

"I know. I can feel your pulse… smell it."

"But I'm really scared that somebody or something will take that happiness away."

"No one will."

Ty Lee's smile fades further. "You know?"

"I've found over the years that humans tend to destroy their own happiness," says Azula.

"Vampires don't?"

"Immortality gives you ample time to correct any human flaws."

"I mean, you look perfect, you feel perfect, I think you're perfect but can anything really be perfect?"

"No. There are always those unfortunate _almosts_ in life… or undeath. Either applies."

"You're not almost. You're perfect! There's no better word out there."

"I wish that were true. I wish I could not _almost_ be with you. _Almost_ kiss you. _Almost_ have you touching my skin."

"I…" _Me too_ , thinks Ty Lee.

"Almost isn't good enough."

Azula peels herself away from her girlfriend and picks up her shopping bag.

* * *

Sitting on her living room floor with a few friends, Suki interlaces her fingers with Zuko's. She has a strong grip; he likes that. He likes her confidence. He likes her boldness. He likes her strength. But he knows someone else who has precisely as much of all that as her.

"Truth or dare?" asks Jin.

"Dare," Zuko states, cracking his knuckles.

"I dare you to kiss the prettiest girl in the room," says Jin, glancing at Suki who is smirking confidently and awaiting her kiss.

Zuko lingers for a moment. He likes Suki, but he thinks he would knock her out if he tried. He never can tell the extent of his vampiric effect. But then his eyes drift to a girl who looks remarkably impatient. He lunges forward and kisses Katara on the lips.

Suki stands up.

Katara leans forward instead of being dizzy. Zuko presses harder, touching his hand to the back of Katara's neck. She pulls away perfectly fine.

His jaw almost drops.

He is more stunned than Suki.

Katara frowns. "You're an asshole. I thought you were an asshole and I was right."

She stands up and follows Suki out of the room.

Zuko can only sit there in shock.

* * *

Ty Lee clings tightly to Azula, her body resting on gloves and a silk shawl to avoid prolonged skin contact, as they walk up to the mansion. It looks like something from a Triad movie, filled with those mafioso types. Ty Lee stands and gazes in awe at the fountain for a few moments before Azula tugs on her.

"Are they all vampires?" she asks of the guests approaching the door, laughing together.

"Yes," purrs Azula. "We usually do not associate with humans. You are a special case."

As they reach the door, the bouncer glowers.

"Who might you be?" He pauses as he notices Ty Lee. "You brought a snack. Did you think a gift like her would get you through the door?"

"Will it?" inquires Azula, batting her eyelashes. "She comes with a gift like me."

He just snorts. "Name."

"My name is Azula Kasai and I insist upon seeing the host of this party. The human is with me. Iroh needs to see her," Azula says with a powerful conviction Ty Lee can only describe as _sploosh_. She sounds like a princess, like she deserves the throne she seeks.

He slowly steps aside. Azula tugs on Ty Lee again and guides her inside. They walk into a glorious ballroom that makes Ty Lee's eyes light up. Vampires of the shadiest sort dressed up to the nines. They are gorgeous and glorious and quite a bit like they glamorous plastic dolls Ty Lee dressed up as a child.

"Is this what life will be like if I marry a vampire princess?" Ty Lee whispers breathlessly.

"Yes," says Azula, but then Ty Lee remembers her dream about Kyoshi Island.

Would that be the result? Will that happen? It felt so… real.

Azula starts walking, still dragging Ty Lee, holding her away from the vampires who smell the fresh blood. She knows humans will die tonight, even if Iroh is so particular about avoiding causing any unnecessary pain to prey.

She strides up the stairs just as a familiar man begins walking down.

"Uncle, you haven't changed a bit," jokes Azula prettily.

He does not reply at first. "You should not be here, Azula. It is dangerous."

"You have never cared about my safety. This is no time to begin."

"What do you want? Why are you here?"

"No greeting? No small talk? No hello to family you have not seen in centuries? So quick to get to the point," spits Azula, and Ty Lee shrinks.

"We can catch up later. I fear for you."

"You fear me," says Azula. "But you do not need to. I have abandoned my coven and I am not here on my father's behalf. I fell in love with a human. I need somewhere to go with her. I cannot sustain her. My father has cut ties. You are the only one I can trust."

"An enemy of your enemy is your friend?" He narrows his eyes and Azula prays to all spirits that he will believe that Ozai is an enemy of Azula's. She still loves her father, adores him. Just because she left his coven does not mean she stopped loving him, _and_ he certainly has not cancelled her credit cards. He left her money to sustain her life.

"Yes. Please. Just talk to her. You will see why I love her," purrs Azula. Ty Lee melts, turning beet red at the compliment.

"I never thought you would be the type to love anyone. You usually love not a person, but love your own ends."

"I have no ends. Ty Lee is no means and never accuse her of that again. I love her like I have never loved before. She woke me. I had been asleep for a very long time, perhaps my entire immortal life, and this human woke me up. I cannot even bear to touch her for fear of killing her instead of turning her."

"Azula…"

"I have been reborn, Uncle."

"As who?"

Azula purrs, "As whoever the fuck I want to be, of course."

Iroh gestures for them to follow. "Converse with me about your romance… and what you need."

Azula smirks as soon as he turns his back, and she tugs on Ty Lee.

* * *

After a conversation Azula found boring, she has what she wants. She and Ty Lee sit in a bedroom in Iroh's mansion, and Azula has a thousand schemes to seize power over the vampiric underworld dancing in her head.

"You were really good at getting what you wanted from him," says Ty Lee uneasily. She hopes Azula has not lied to her… but maybe she did. Maybe vampires lie.

"My Uncle wears his weakness on his chest. It would take more effort to _stop_ myself from exploiting it."

Ty Lee hastily lunges forward and pecks Azula on the lips. It makes her lightheaded for a brief moment, and then she slides backwards.

"I love you."

"Thank you," is all Azula says.

Ty Lee chews on her lip.

* * *

While Zuko sits stunned at a party, Ozai's cellphone insistently rings in the dead of the night. Mai finally snaps and peels her eyes from the television to answer it. They share enough that he cannot possibly mind.

"Hello?"

"Is my brother home?"

"That depends on who your brother is."

"Ozai Kasai," says Iroh and Mai knows who he is. She does not know what to say at first.

"No," finally she manages.

"I am not a threat. I do not even need to speak to him, since I believe can safely assume you are his mate. I wanted to let him know that Azula is safe and with me."

"She left the coven. I'm young by vampiric terms but I know that means we cut all ties."

"I wish I knew where my son was. I may rarely see eye to eye with my brother, but he deserves to know where his daughter is."

"Is that it?"

"I also wanted to warn him that she may threaten your coven's safety."

"Is she tattling on us?"

"Not exactly. She has made it her mission to reclaim a throne she never had. It will jeopardize unforeseeable and foreseeable things both."

"Stop her, then."

"I am trying. I will try to guide her towards a safer and healthier path, but I thought I needed to do this. I needed to protect Zuko."

"I thought you were calling Ozai."

"Please forgive me, but I needed you to think that."

 _Click_.


End file.
